Business

Recent articles just published in The Canberra Times reveal the extent to which the flawed ACT Goverment supermarket policy apparently led to a review of the ACT public service and its outcome: the present directorate structure. As reported earlier, developments at the Canberra International Airport with the advent of Costco and Woolworths have exposed the impotence of the ACT Government in attempting to promote supermarket competition. The ACT Government ignored previous Productivity Commission and Australian Competition and Consumer Commision studies in the construction of the policy and managed to earn the flack of the ACTPLA chief executive.

The ACT supermarket policy has just hit a roadblock with the announcement that Woolworths will join Costco in a major wholesale supermarket shakeup, after Canberra Airport was forced to look for a new tenant because of the continuing demise of Brand Depot. The only possible benefit to other supermarkets in the ACT from this development is that Costco might become an alternative wholesale supplier for smaller IGA’s and Supabarn in addition to Metcash, as well as Costco being a competitor to Woolworths in wholesale goods. A wide-ranging newspaper dialogue on this topic has just taken place.