Senator Joyce said today, “Where will Australia draw the line on what share of the market place the major retailers should have?”
“Not only are they the biggest sellers of cigarettes and alcohol, the biggest benefactors of gaming machine revenue, the biggest sellers of petrol, the biggest sellers of groceries; they have long wanted to get into pharmacies , so after they make you sick they want to make you better again. The latest foray is their extension into hardware and their expansion in literature.”
“Where is all this going to stop? Why don’t we let them go into hospitals, legal practices, retirement villages, kindergartens, florists, bakeries (hang on they are already in those two), newsagencies, medical centres, and accountancy practices, why stop at hardware stores?”
“Maybe after the majors have totally dominated all facets of life in Australia everything could be packaged up and sold off overseas to a state owned enterprise, after all why should we stand in the way of the total display of centralist domination, no matter how ludicrous and dangerous the outcome is for us?”
“The capacity to participate in the merchant class in Australia is being compromised, and in some cases lost, and there appears to be no political reprieve in sight and no political will to acknowledge what is spoken about in small business every day. Small business wants government to be the arbiter that allows Australian family’s access to market share on terms that are not totally dominated by the major players utilising 800-pound gorilla tactics.”
“A large player uses stand over tactics then tries to dress it up as market efficiency . The closer you look at it, it’s actually cross subsidisation from the businesses they stand over to cover the inefficiencies brought about by their size.”
“Independent retailers in Australia are being sent to the wall by the dominance of larger retailers. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says he believes this dominance has led to a positive impact on prices for consumers.”
“What’s great about having the highest inflation of food prices in the western world Mr. Tanner? What’s efficient about having food inflation that’s twice the rate of the Consumer Price Index? After a short term splash is this now what we can look forward to in the longer term in the hardware sector?”
“I acknowledge that we have let one major player in the hardware sector get to big but is the solution not touching it but swallowing up all the smaller players that are left?”
“In our nation we lack the capacity to say when the market share held is enough. Currently the majors are attempting to change the rules pertaining to the parallel importation of books. For some this would make perfect sense that those who control the retail commerce of the nation should control what we read as well.
“In Australia it is hugely important that we have access to a diversified literary palette which would allow us to express the images, of who and what we are as a nation. The argument that Australia is too small to be painted in more than two colours is a sad indictment of what we actually have to offer. “
“Literature is one of the last enclaves not dominated by the major retailers, but not for much longer after listening to Mr. Tanner.”
“The majors are using their political muscle to grow their market share and silence dissent. They create a culture within Canberra where it is politically incorrect to question their benevolence and as a result the majors will end up dominating the market place and extract from Australian consumers any premium they choose.”
“Choice, most would think, is a number greater than two and if we do not have the courage to talk about the obvious elephant in the room then what a sad legacy we will leave for Australia’s economy in the future.”
“You don’t need to have written a PHD on Keynes to understand that once an entity dominates the market place then it extracts a premium in price from you by using its market share, rather than its dynamism.“
“The result is the consumer ends up with a stifled, inefficient market which doesn’t allow others to participate in it, a bad price for consumers and a tepid nondescript drone that stands in place for entrepreneurial flair.”
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