Fed: Labor to tackle squeeze of rural retailers Fitzgibbon

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2000
Fed: Labor to tackle squeeze of rural retailers Fitzgibbon

CANBERRA, Aug 1 AAP - Labor had resolved to clamp down on the effect that market concentration
in the grocery sector was having on small rural retailers, opposition small business spokesman
Joel Fitzgibbon said today.

Mr Fitzgibbon said his resolution also committed a future Labor government to measures
designed to protect small firms from the unfair practices of larger industry players.

It would also provide them with greater access to low-cost dispute settlement mechanisms.

Mr Fitzgibbon told the ALP's national conference in Hobart that the resolution built
on the pro-small business and regional initiatives adopted in the party's new platform.

"This resolution commits Labor to the adoption in full of the recommendations of the
Joint Select Committee on the Retailing Sector, something the Howard government has been
unprepared to do," he said in a statement.

Mr Fitzgibbon said the resolution included a commitment to a uniform national retail
tenancy code and a Retail Industry Code of Conduct - underpinned by a number of principles,
including that of like terms for like customers.

AAP dep/mfh/hu/de

KEYWORD: ALP SMALL

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