Chief Minister Jon Stanhope announced yesterday the next stage of the Government's overhaul of supermarket planning laws, flagging changes to the Territory Plan to allow new major supermarket providers in areas such as Kingston, Dickson and Gungahlin.

Mr Stanhope said we could expect to see direct or restricted sales of land to independent supermarket providers as early as April in Kingston and Dickson, where current planning laws prevent new entrants into the market.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority is finalising master plans for both suburbs which would determine what sort of supermarket would be allowed.

The Government issued yesterday its supermarket competition implementation plan, which outlined steps that would be taken to implement all 15 recommendations in an October 2009 report from former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission commissioner John Martin.

The implementation of Mr Martin's recommendations will effectively restrict Woolworths and Coles from expanding their presence in the ACT, where the retail giants already control 60 per cent of supermarket floor space and 72 per cent of turnover.

One of the main new policies is to restrict which businesses can bid for particular sites, and eligible bidders would have to meet criteria such as the commercial and community characteristics of a particular centre, the existing presence and capabilities of a particular centre, and who the wholesale supplier would be. At present, Woolworths and Coles run their own wholesale distribution while all IGAs in the ACT are supplied by Metcash.

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