Review of Supermarket Competition Policy

The ACT Government has appointed formed ACCC Commissioner John Martin to review supermaket competition policy in the ACT. The terms of references for the review are:

• the extent of competition in the ACT supermarket grocery sector in the light of the findings of the 2008 ACCC Inquiry into the competitiveness of retail prices for standard groceries;
• likely future trends in the structure of the ACT and Australian supermarket grocery sector;
• how the ACT Government can support effective and sustainable competition in the grocery sector;
• policies that might be applied on a site by site basis to ensure site allocation supports the ACT Government’s longer term policy objectives to promote competition and diversification; and
• any other additional measures that might be considered by the ACT Government to support a diverse and competitive retail grocery sector over the medium to longer term.

It’s critical we have healthy competition in the supermaket sector here in Canberra, with room for majors, independents and locally run stores.

There will be a series of community consultations on the review next week at the following locations:

• Tuggeranong
  Date: 13 July 2009
  Time: 12.30–2.30 pm
  Venue: The Vikings Town Centre
  Cnr Athlon Drive & Rowland Rees Crescent Greenway ACT 2900
• Woden
  Date: 13 July 2009
  Time: 6.30–8.30 pm
  Venue: Canberra Southern Cross Club
  92–96 Corinna Street Woden ACT 2606
• Gungahlin
  Date: 14 July 2009
  Time: 12.30–2.30 pm
  Venue: Gungahlin Lakes Golf Club
  Cnr Gungahlin Drive & Gundaroo Road Nicholls ACT 2913
  
• Belconnen
  Date: 14 July 2009
  Time: 6.30–8.30 pm
  Venue: West Belconnen Leagues Club
  Hardwick Crescent Kippax ACT 2615
• Civic
  Date: 16 July 2009
  Time: 5–7 pm
  Venue: The ACT Legislative Assembly Building
  London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2601

Written submissions will also be accepted up to Friday 24 July. The email address for these and to RSVP for the public forums is supermarketreview@act.gov.au

Public Sphere #2

Senator Kate Lundy has attracted wide interest in her Public Sphere initiative, with the 2nd event being held tomorrow at Parliament House. Seats for the camp are booked out but people can still participate through Twitter (#publicsphere), videofeed and liveblogging through Sen. Lundy’s website.

The debate on how citizens effectively engage with Government is not new, but what is new is the ability to use technology and advances in communication as enablers to improve transparency, engagement and innovation.

The focus of Public Sphere 2 is “Government 2.0: Policy & Practice” and the Public Sphere team have assembled an impressive list of speakers. I’ve grabbed the agenda and speaker list below for info.

Further ideas and discussions on Gov2.0 can be found at the Gov2.0Australia Group.

Time	Who	Role	Subject
0900	Senator Kate Lundy	Senator for the ACT	Opening remarks and welcome
0905	William Perrin	Secretary of the Power of Information Taskforce	Gov 2.0 in the UK: Policy and Status *
0915	Michael de Percy	University of Canberra	Citizen Engagement & Policy Learning: Forming, storming, norming and performing
0930	James Dellow	Headshift	If it isn’t broken, why fix it?
0945	Stephen Collins	Founder Acidlabs	What culture change is needed for Government 2.0?
1000		Break and networking
1015	Des Walsh	Former APS and NSW public servant	Why parliamentarians and public sector managers need to participate actively in social media (briefing papers and slideshows won’t cut it)
1030	Lynelle Briggs	APS Commissioner	Citizen-centric public engagement *
1040	Martin Stewart-Weeks	eGovernment Head CISCO	New models of public governance in The Connected Republic
1055	Dr Owen Cameron	Program Manager, CCRSPI (Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industry) Coordinator, Primary Industry Adaptation Research Network	New media and NRM policy consultation – meeting, listening and hearing to enhance service delivery
1110		Break and networking
1120	Professor Brian Fitzgerald	Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation, QUT	Copyright Strategies for Government 2.0
1130	Peter McEvoy	Executive Producer Q&A	Old media/New media – tools for political engagement
1145	Minister Tanner Minister Ludwig	Minister for Finance and Deregulation Special Minister of State and Cabinet Secretary	The Rudd Government and the Government 2.0 agenda
1200		Lunch
1250	Justin Freeman	Agileware	Bringing Web 2.0 to Defence and other Government agencies
1255	Zachary Zeus	BizCubed	Open Tools for Open Government
1300	Raul Vera	Engineering Manager, Geospatial	Victorian bushfires case study: Lessons learned for online public engagement
1315	Nerida Hart	LWA	Case study: Knowledge for Regional Natural Resource Management program
1330	Marghanita da Cruz	Consultant	Local Community Engagement 2.0
1345	Reem Abdelaty & Diana Mounter	Local Government Web Network	Challenges in Local Government (NSW) with regard to Gov 2.0, community engagement and other aspects of government online
1400		Break and networking
1410	Matthew Landauer	OpenAustralia	Open access to government data, open source software in government
1425	Damien Donnelly	TweetMP	Ways of increasing civic engagement through Twitter
1430	Ben Searle	Office of Spatial Data Management	Spatial data for Gov 2.0 – the role of Government
1445	Roxanne Missingham	The Parliamentary Library	APH website – Federal experience of digital engagement with citizens
1500	Dr Crispin Butteriss	Bang the Table	Bang the Table – Local government experience with online public consultation
1510		Afternoon tea
1525	Andrew Boyd	Independent consultant	The importance of user experience in Government 2.0
1540	Sally Rose	Open Forum	National Human Rights Committee online forum
1555	James Purser	Collaborynth	Open source, Open standards, Open Government
1610		Break and networking
1620	John Shanahan	CEO Colmar Brunton	Online communities – linking the citizens and customers into decision making in a totally new way.
1625	Kevin Cox	GreenID	Identity by presence versus identity by name.
1630	Shoaib Burq	GeoLabs	Opening of geographic data
1635	John Haining	Director of Innovation for Michael Johnson Associates	Helping government understand the Web 2.0 needs of businesses.
1640	Mark Spain	Global Learning	Community participation in building a sustainable future.
1645	Tom Worthington	Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the ANU	m-Government 2.0 – Making government accessible online on your phone
1700	Senator Kate Lundy	Senator for the ACT	Closing remarks and farewell

Labor-Greens Agreement Signed

The Labor – Greens Agreement signed on Friday signals a number of fundamental changes to the governance of the ACT.

The tone of the document is positive in the main and it will be interesting to see how some of the proposals translate.

One of the most significant is the proposal to develop “oversight institutions as an emerging fourth branch of government”. The role of the Legislative Assembly Committees are to be expanded with the Committees having both a traditional scrutiny role and a new collaboration role with the Executive, engaging on “legislative reform, policy setting and service delivery”. Committees will meet in two modes – Collaborative Meetings and Scrutiny Meetings. The increased engagement of elected representatives across the party spectrum could have very positive outcomes, however the danger is that the responsiveness of government will be slowed by the increased need for meetings and dialogue.

Greens’ MLAs will become Chairs of the following Committees:

* Public Accounts
* Health, Community and Social Services
* Climate Change, Environment and Water
* Select Committee on Ecological Carrying Capacity for the ACT and region

So while the Greens have not become part of the Government by taking on a Ministry, they will have a say in the policy direction of the health and environment areas (given the addition of the collaborative modes of the Committees) and in public governance and probity through the Public Accounts Committee.

There has been criticism of the Greens that they have an “all care and no responsibility” approach and it will be fascinating to watch how they balance their input into policy outcomes with their desire to maintain and strengthen their electoral position in the future.

One other point to highlight is the introduction of Triple Bottom Line reporting. The “People, Planet, Profit” approach to accountability and sustainability will, I assume, attempt to measure social capital, natural capital and fiscal outcomes.

Will we be able to put Triple Bottom Line reporting into practice without it being merely lip service layered with bureaucracy? I’m not convinced anyone yet understands the implications of the approach. There are obvious benefits from understanding the social and environmental impacts of each piece of legislation or policy proposal, but as always, good outcomes are only achieved when lofty ideals are translated into crystal clear realities.