ACT Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said he is opening the door for big retailers to expand in the territory, saying it will create jobs for retrenched public servants. Some small businesses are unhappy with the proposal, saying they are doing things tough and the market is already oversaturated.
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On Thursday, Mr Gentleman told a meeting of the Large Format Retail Association (formerly the Bulky Goods Retailers Association), representing Costco, IKEA, Masters and Spotlight, among others, that the ACT was "open for business".
"We are really trying to incentivise companies like you see here today, large format retailers, to come to the territory," the minister said.
He said it took hard work to expand buisnesses like these, and that the ACT government had demonstrated its willingness to work with them in a deal to open an IKEA store in the territory by the end of 2015.
Mr Gentleman said the ACT was reforming red tape and lessening the regulatory burden to "encourage an 'open for business' approach to engaging with government".
With employment likely to be affected when federal public service cuts bite, Mr Gentlemen said the territory would welcome big employers as a safety net. "Each time a big retailer company opens in the ACT, we get more employment," he said.
He said that despite soft figures, the big end of town was still spending and that consumer confidence would recover within 18 months.
He said that ACT planning legislation – the "one piece of planning legislation and one principal planning document, the Territory Plan" – made things simpler than in other states, and this was attractive to developers.
"The ACT has large parcels of land suitable for large format retail, such as along the Majura parkway, flat land easily accessible by road and freight," Mr Gentleman said. He also said the government was "committed to supporting the building, construction and investment sectors in the ACT".
Large Format Retail Association chief executive Philippa Kelly said she was pleased by the minister's open-door policy, saying the ACT was a safe haven compared to dealing with NSW planning regulations.
She had not noticed any negative sentiment from retailers about public service cuts and that some businesses were considering expanding to the territory.
Mr Gentleman said one major player, that did not opedrate in the ACT, was talking to him about expanding into Canberra with an operation that would create 300 jobs.
Local businessman John Hanna, of John Hanna Fine Clothes for Men, rejected the suggestion of more big retailers, saying there was no room for more players in the soft retail market.
Recent figures from the ACT's retail sector revealed it is now the weakest in Australia, with the lowest total industry turnover in June since December 2012.
He said Canberra was "grossly oversaturated with retail to cater successfully to the amount of people we can divide it among".
"We are like plankton. We are being devoured by the majors who, really in the end, will dominate retail and the suffering will be done by the consumer because the competition factor will be eliminated," Mr Hanna said.
He said if overseas businesses wanted to expand online "we can't do a damn thing about it, but if they are looking to take up floor space then I think something should be done about that".
