A SUPERMARKET operator, who reckons he has lost $90,000 in sales due to NSW’s bottle and can scheme, wants ongoing compensation from the state government.
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IGA grocer Bob Mathews was commenting in the wake of a progress report by NSW’s competition watchdog which is investigating the impact of the the container deposit scheme.
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) flagged in that report the use of an exclusion zone or compensation to assist traders hurt by loss of business because Victoria does not offer 10-cent returns for drink containers.
“On balance, our preliminary view is that Option 2 is more appropriate,” IPART concluded.
“Option 1 is impractical and would be difficult to implement without merely shifting the border problem from one region to the next.”
The option for compensation refers to “developing a financial assistance package to adversely affected businesses, via a one-off payment to businesses based on actual sales in the first year”.
But Mr Mathews, who has supermarkets at East Albury and Springdale Heights, wants rolling redress until Victoria introduces a scheme.
“If there’s going to be compensation there has to be ongoing payments because it’s an ongoing problem,” Mr Mathews said.
“The government has stuffed up and we believe the government should reimburse us.”
IPART is seeking feedback on its progress report until June 8 and plans to hold a public hearing in Albury in October before its final recommendations are presented to Premier Gladys Berejiklian in December.
Meanwhile, reverse vending machines have begun operating near the PCYC in East Albury and the Coles car park at Lavington.
The unit in East Albury was transferred from the IGA supermarket at Norris Park.
The machine’s contractor TOMRA-Cleanway decided to shift its equipment after IGA operator Gary Evans expressed concerns about traffic, noise and a lack of spin-off income related to hosting the depository.
He said TOMRA-Cleanaway would reimburse him for money spent on installing power cables to supply the machine.
Mr Evans said the response from regular customers to the unit’s removal was upbeat.
“We’ve had taxi drivers that have come back again to buy their meals, they weren’t coming because they could not get in and out,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ve had anyone that’s given us negative feedback.”
Norris Park IGA liquor manager Brian Jenkins said dockets issued for container deposits at his supermarket would be honoured by Coles which is the cash point now the machine has been relocated to East Albury.
