Grocery Choice website 'mismanaged'

The long-awaited report on the government's failed Grocery Choice website has
slammed mismanagement and says the project was never going to work.
A Senate economics references committee on Wednesday delivered its findings on the
website project, which was much lauded by the government until it was scrapped in
June.
It said the website was poorly designed and doomed to fail because of time pressures.
The damning report recommended the consumer watchdog be investigated for its
handling of the tender process for the website, while also saying the government
should get moving on an industry-run website as promised in the wake of Grocery
Choice's demise.
"The government's Grocery Choice initiative was characterised by waste and
mismanagement," the report said.
"It was designed to fulfil a hollow election promise to put downward pressure on
grocery prices.
"However, it is clear that the aims of the website were not going to be achievable."
The website, potentially covering comparative grocery prices from 61 regions across
Australia, bore no resemblance to real-world shopping patterns, the committee said.
Pressuring the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) into launching
the website by mid-2009 "led to hasty decision making" and a waste of $2.7 million
of taxpayers' money.
It could have been saved if the government had "been more flexible and kept its eye
on the ball".
"The launch date for the website was arbitrary and politically motivated," the
report said.
The first of eight recommendations suggests the federal auditor-general should
investigate the tender process set up by the ACCC.
The commission was originally charged with setting up the site when it was announced
in late 2008, but was told later to find a new developer.
The independent consumer group Choice was in charge of the site when the government
dumped the project entirely, a few days before it was due to be launched.
Two Labor, two Liberal, one National and one independent senator sat on the committee.
The committee's findings confirmed everything Australian shoppers already knew about
the project - that it was useless and mismanaged, opposition consumer affairs
spokesman Luke Hartsuyker said.
"Grocery Choice has been exposed as a fraud as well, and an expensive fraud at
that," he said.
The government had a habit of pretending to address increasing prices, such as with
the bungled Fuel Watch scheme, Mr Hartsuyker said.
Family First senator Steve Fielding agreed.
"What's next ... Boat Watch?"
Senator Fielding pointed the finger at the two major supermarkets, Woolworths and
Coles, for a lack of transparency in the grocery sector.
The committee reported Woolworths resisted the website from the start, while Coles,
as well as Franklins supermarkets, grew increasingly uncooperative.
Choice said in its submissions the supermarkets had "effectively sabotaged" the
website.
The focus should now be on consumers and what they need to have accurate shopping
data, said competition law expert Frank Zumbo, urging the government to force the
major retailers into action.