STATUTES AMENDMENT (SHOP TRADING AND HOLIDAYS) BILL

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of the Legislative Council's amendments.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I move:

That the Legislative Council amendments be agreed to.

The government's attitude to these amendments is that we support each of them. The amendments achieve three things, in substance. The first is the creation of a change to the duration of the part-day public holiday on Christmas and New Year's eves, so that it becomes 7pm to midnight as opposed to 5pm to midnight.

The second of the amendments concerns a review that will be brought into effect in 2013, and there is a corresponding amendment associated with the review. Then the third amendment is, in substance, a deletion of powers that were contained under the act for the minister to grant long-term exemptions in relation to shop trading.

In substance, the change has been agreed between the houses as a matter of compromise between the government and crossbench members in the other place. We believe that it represents a fair compromise that protects the interests of working people in the creation of those part-day public holidays but at the same time gives some relief from the costs associated with the additional higher rates of pay on those evenings which will be beneficial for a number of businesses and organisations that have raised concerns about the cost impact.

Secondly, the review is welcome because obviously this is a new provision and it is sensible to review it after its operation. Thirdly, the decision to remove the power of the minister to grant exemptions in this way goes to something that we have been saying rhetorically about these amendments, and that is that we wanted to have greater levels of security for the future in terms of the shop trading hours regime.

By requiring further changes to come back to the parliament, this of course provides another layer of entrenchment of these provisions and is obviously a more transparent way of dealing with any particular changes to the act, which we believe will tend to solidify the arrangements for the future.

Short-term exemptions, of course, will still remain an option but the long-term exemptions provided for in the provisions that have been proposed to be deleted will now be removed from the act. I commend the amendments to the house.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: You have to hand it to the Premier—he is spinning to the end. The reality is, Premier, that in relation to the exemption amendments you talked about—how you wanted to bring them back to the parliament, and that was the reason for the amendments—the amendments were actually moved by a minor party of another name in the other place, not the government, so it was not a government idea.

The reason the amendments were moved is they have never, ever been used, so it is not about bringing more accountability back to the parliament: it is the minor party suggesting that the government, having missed this point in reviewing the Shop Trading Hours Act, should delete a provision that has never been used. I give the Premier credit for spinning this issue to the end.

The reality is that the opposition accepts the fact that we do not have the numbers in this house, so these amendments will go through. We put on the record that the amendment from 5pm to 7pm does not change our view on that particular issue.

The opposition supports the other issues in regard to the exemptions being changed, the various reviews, etc., and we note that the small business community in the main still totally opposes what has been proposed in the legislation. It will be interesting to see who will conduct the review when it is held in due course and how independent of government it is.

Motion carried.