Retail and Commercial Leases (Designated Anchor Lease) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 2 December 2020.)

Ms MICHAELS (Enfield) (10:45): I rise to speak in support of the Retail and Commercial Leases (Designated Anchor Lease) Amendment Bill introduced by the member for Florey, and I thank her for doing so. Obviously, we have a lot of significant economic pressures on our small businesses in this state as a result of COVID, and the member for Florey's bill seeks to provide some protection to the many small business owners who operate a retail business. Small traders operating out of shopping centres may face ruin if an anchor tenant ends its lease.

The purpose of anchor tenants in a shopping centre is to leverage the broad appeal of the tenant to attract a wide cross-section of the community. Specialty retail stores utilise the foot traffic of an anchor tenant to build their trade. Specialty stores that we often pop into as we go into our Coles or Woolies include newsagents, chemists, food outlets and clothing stores. The difficulty for these speciality stores comes when an anchor tenant leaves. Think of your own local shopping centre.

If the supermarket were to suddenly close, what would draw you back to the shopping centre to buy a $3 drink or grab dinner on your way home for the kids? When foot traffic attracted by the anchor tenant falls, the trade in the surrounding shops falls. These small business owners obtain leases in shopping centres based on the ability of the anchor tenant to attract customers to shopping centres. If the anchor tenant leaves, the business model for the speciality stores fails. As such, the interests of these small business owners who entered into these leases in good faith with shopping centre owners need to be protected.

Northpark Shopping Centre in my local electorate is an example that faces these risks to the small businesses that operate there as a result of the potential closure of Service SA in that centre. I understand that the Premier announced the overturning of the decision to close Service SA after a significant amount of campaigning, but I understand that the landlord at Northpark Shopping Centre is putting that property up for lease and it will be available later this year. This brings into question for many of the other tenants who are aware of this what the situation is going to be with Service SA as a major drawcard to Northpark. What we do see is that, if an anchor tenant does move, there are fewer opportunities for retail stores to make a profit in these retail shop areas.

I would like again to thank the member for Florey for bringing this bill to the house. We indicate that we will work with the member for Florey to bring amendments in the upper house if we progress to that stage.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Brown.