The supermarket colossal Woolworths Ltd. has been accused by Bunnings Warehouse, the hardware retailer. The former has been charged for circumventing planning and zoning laws, which in turn, could have kept it away from the outside inspection.

This inspection included its massive hardware stores, which was also one of its joint venture with the US giant, Lowes. A Government advisory committee has been given a submission by Bunnings, which read that a 'free kick' and a 'valuable gift' will be attained by the partners of this joint venture, through the rezoning of the industrial ground for the stores.

The submission also includes that Bunnings is not in an intention to use its planning process to stump the given Oxygen stores. It is rather vital and a level playing field will be there if the planning provisions affecting the opponents are concerned.

It adds, “Simply it would not be a fair planning outcome if one operator had the benefit of a less rigorous planning regime than other operators, and if there are strong reasons to give a particular operator an inside run, then a competing operator should be put in a position to compete as part of that same general process”.

Presently, the argument is on the major strategy of Woolworths, which presents no usual collection of industrial hardware, but only extends to white goods and electronics.