Airport threatens cosy retailing monopolies - Can you hear the screams?

The “plan” also includes suburban shops but Simon manages to tear that up pretty fast when the right developer comes calling.

And Areaman short of a royal commission what sort of evidence are you looking for? The ACT Government should act in such a way it is above suspicion.

It does not.

If a friend doesn’t cut the cards, deals from the bottom of the deck, or from below the table, then I don’t need to actually catch the cheating to know it’s time to walk away from the table.

I think I meant that ‘the existing malls might want to defend their “turf”‘, not their “turd”. Although I do think that my unwitting spelling mistake bears some humorous although unintended resonance!

Areaman and JB, I agree with you both – I am not really trying to defned our current planning policies or the decisions made by the authorities, but I think that the fact that one group (the airport) doesn’t have to go through them is unfair and unjustified, and has the potential to lead tosome really negative results. Sure the existing malls just wna tto defend their turd, they’re just acting out of self-interest and I acknowledge that. But I think there has to be some recognition that Canberra has been planned to have town centres and industrial areas, and the Airport isn’t either of those things.

My problem is that the Airport answers to no one but themselves (and the NCA, who don’t give a shit). It doesn’t matter if you agree with the local planning regime or not the fact is that it should be a local responsibility and currently the people of the ACT have no recourse for anything the airport wants to build.

Also these claims of corruption are always trotted out by RA posters, but no one has ever proved anything of the sort. Sure there are some donations to the ALP from builders, but no more than the Libs get, and there’s no evidence that it effects planning approvals.

Well SB I suspect the truth is a bit more nuanced. But Mr. Corbell appears to be able to get projects through very fast when it suits him and tie them up indefinitely when it doesn’t.

And the process with which one gains that favour is, to the outsider, opaque.

But it’s no way to run a city.

So let me get this straight, according to you:
ACT Government requiring developers to go through a long planning process = bad (because it provides a disincentive for investment)
ACT Government quickly approving city west developments = bad (because it is *clear* evidence of political favours)
NCA ‘lack of red tape’ = good

It’s not called free enterprise, what it is called is a monopoly -the airport is the only enterprise that doesn’t have to undertake the processes that are part of planning approval, which, believe it or not, do have a purpose and are something we all derive some benefit from.

“change that for Canberra”, scuse my lack of location references.

The Homebush DFO didn’t offer me ANY discounts on products that I didn’t already see in the many malls I visited at the time. This was less than a year ago.

Apart from Pumpkin Patch, they all had exactly the same sale stock at exactly the same prices as the regular malls.

If the airport can change that, so much the better. No wonder the guvvies are trying to starve it by not running bus services to it.

I think what is happening out at the airport is good for Canberra. Every airport in every major city in Australia and around the world has a strong commercial base surrounding it.

It’s moronic to say that the airport is “sapping the life out of Civic”, look at the amount of cranes that are dominating the city skyline at the moment.

I recently visited the DFO seconds outlet at Homebush (note not based in Sydney city) and it was a great experience.

If Corbell and his lacklustre government stopped undermining developers with their red-tape and long time delays (unlike the NCA’s approach to the airport) there would be more investment in Canberra.

SB, you’d have a point if planning laws in this country hadn’t become barely veiled code for “where’s my brown envelope”.

Thank god the airports are providing competition and forcing local governments to deliver real outcomes. Because they wouldn’t if no-one forced their hand.

It’s called free enterprise.

The airport is a law unto itself. We can thank the Federal Government for selling off these assets with scant regard for local planning laws or development of communities.

That the airports are free to develop malls, offices and such like without even consulting local councils (or in this case, the ACT government) is a disgrace. We end up with the result that the Brindabella Business Park is sapping the life out of Civic as an office precinct, and is not serviced by public transport. But what do we care about such things, hey? As long as the rent is cheap, and the airport owners can make some more money.

In any case, unless the airport provides some slightly cheaper parking I can’t really see anyone wanting to spend a great deal of time shopping at a factory outlet.