STATUTES AMENDMENT (SHOP TRADING AND HOLIDAYS) BILL

Introduction and First Reading

Received from the House of Assembly and read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (16:11): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the detailed explanation of the bill and clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

The Statutes Amendment (Shop Trading and Holidays) Bill 2012 will revitalise Adelaide by extending shop trading hours in the city and by identifying the Adelaide Central Business District as the Central Business District (CBD) Tourist Precinct. It will also create part day public holidays on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve to recognise the importance of these special nights of celebration to the South Australian community.

The Bill amends shop trading and public holidays' legislation. These amendments reflect this Government's commitment to ensuring that Adelaide is a vibrant central meeting place for the South Australian community and for visitors to our State, while at the same time balancing the opportunities for workers to spend time with family and friends on special days of commemoration and celebration. The success of public holiday trading in the city centre on the recent New Year's Day and Australia Day public holidays and the recent tourist influx to Rundle Mall with the visit of cruise ships to our port emphasises the importance of ensuring that our State capital continues to attract locals to shop but also establishes itself as a prime tourist destination particularly at peak holiday periods.

South Australia's shop trading hours and public holiday legislation have long been used as political volleyballs with criticism over many years that the laws in these areas are outdated and inconsistent. The proposed changes will bring our law into the twenty first century while continuing to protect the interests of small retailers, retail workers and all workers in the state who are required to work on public holidays while the rest of us enjoy time off.

Shop trading and public holiday laws have also been criticised for being overly complex and difficult to understand. The Bill provides for a significant reduction in red tape as outdated procedures for receiving shop trading exemptions are streamlined.

Members will recall that on 7 November 2011, this Government announced its intention to extend shop trading hours on most public holidays in the central business district of Adelaide and to create part-day public holidays from 5:00 pm until 12:00 midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. This Bill enacts that commitment.

There are many benefits for South Australia that will result from these changes, including the dramatic opening up of shop trading hours in the newly defined CBD tourist precinct. The Bill will see retailers in the CBD open on most public holidays, from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm, creating an atmosphere that will inject new life into Adelaide with significant flow on effects to surrounding restaurants, eateries and other establishments.

However, this Government also recognises the special significance of 25 December, Good Friday, and Anzac Day and the Bill ensures that shops will remain closed on those days, in recognition of South Australian community values and expectations.

These reforms will go a long way towards rejuvenating the CBD to create a vibrant cosmopolitan centre to visit and go shopping. The reforms will be further supported by the upgraded Adelaide Oval and other key developments outlined for the city. Once enacted, these amendments will ensure that South Australians and visiting tourists will view Rundle Mall as a central point in a city that is bustling with vitality and activity. By identifying the city centre as a tourist precinct for the purposes of shop trading laws, this government is further signalling its ongoing commitment to making Adelaide a tourist destination for the twenty first century. The combination of cultural attractions, good food and fine wine, and a unique shopping experience will combine to make Adelaide a must visit city on the Australian tourist map.

The legislation leaves unaltered the shop trading provisions applying to the suburbs in Adelaide. This fits with our understanding of the people of Adelaide, who want a vibrant, open, heart of the city, but want to preserve the best of our quiet, family friendly neighbourhoods.

And by doing so the legislation protects our local businesses like our independent supermarkets, or convenience stores, and their suppliers, from the pressures we see interstate of dominant businesses. There is no doubt that one of the reasons we have the strongest independent supermarket sector in Australia, and a strong produce sector, is that the Government has stood strongly against the total deregulation for which some in our community have lobbied.

The opportunity for shops to increase trading is balanced by the prescription of part-day public holidays on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve from 5.00 pm until 12.00 midnight. This recognises the importance of these nights for community celebration and family gatherings. The part-day public holidays will allow workers to access protections and penalty rates if they are required to work on these special nights. These provisions acknowledge the fact that while most of us are at home or out enjoying ourselves at those special times of the year, there are others who are serving us and looking after us, such as nurses, police, ambulance officers, firefighters and hospitality workers.

Prescribing part-day public holidays gives private sector workers the right to reasonably refuse to work on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve pursuant to the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), providing them with the opportunity to spend that time with family, friends and loved ones, or be compensated appropriately should they choose to work.

The creation of these part-day public holidays also recognises this Government's commitment to the family, religious and cultural values that are very important to most South Australians at these special times of the year.

In addition, the opportunity has been taken to amend existing provisions of the Shop Trading Hours Act to significantly reduce administrative processes for businesses seeking exemptions to trade by extending the '14 day' maximum exemption period to '30 days'.

Currently shops are issued with multiple exemptions over Christmas and other holiday periods due to the 14 day limitation. In the last Christmas period over 300 retail premises were granted exemptions from the Shop Trading Hours Act. This Government recognises that the current processes that are required to apply for exemptions can be a hindrance to retailers and by streamlining and removing many of them, this Bill allows retailers to better use their resources in other areas during busy trading periods.

The Bill also allows the Minister to grant a single exemption to all, or a majority of shops, in a Prescribed Shopping District. This removes the requirement for non-exempt shops to individually apply for exemptions and allows the Minister to grant 'blanket' exemptions across Prescribed Shopping Districts at special times of the year, such as Christmas, for a maximum period of 30 days; again reducing red tape for both retailers and administrators.

All of these administrative amendments reflect the Productivity Commission's and the Competitiveness Council's recommendations to improve South Australian shop trading hours legislation, by significantly reducing the time and resources that non-exempt shop operators invest in applying for exemptions.

Overall, this Bill represents the dawn of a new era for South Australia's shop trading and public holiday legislation. It dramatically deregulates shop trading in the Adelaide CBD on most public holidays. It provides workers with protections and entitlements when requested to work on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It will inject new life and vibrancy into our city. It will create a tourist precinct. It will reduce red tape for retailers.

This Bill stands as a symbol of the regeneration of the City of Adelaide. It values our community and the expectations we share about how we celebrate the days that are important to us and to our sense of citizenship. It acknowledges and supports the fact that those of us who are required to work while we celebrate these special days should be appropriately rewarded.

This is a Bill for a modern, vibrant, confident South Australia.

I commend the Bill to Members.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Acts Interpretation Act 1915

4—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

Subclause (1) inserts a definition of part-day public holiday into section 4(1). The remaining subclauses delete the definition of public holiday and provide that a reference to a public holiday is a reference to both a public holiday and, subject to proposed new subsection (4), a part-day public holiday. Proposed new subsection (4) provides that if for the purposes of an Act or statutory instrument a business day, working day or other period is expressed as excluding a public holiday, the exclusion does not extend to a part-day public holiday (unless the Act expressly provides to the contrary).

5—Amendment of section 27—Provisions as to limitation of time

This clause inserts proposed new subsection (2a) which provides that a reference in subsection (2) to a public holiday does not include a part-day public holiday.

Part 3—Amendment of Holidays Act 1910

6—Insertion of section 3B

This clause inserts proposed new section 3B.

3B—Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve

Proposed section 3B provides that the part of the day from 5pm to 12 o'clock midnight on 24 December and 31 December will be a public holiday (a part-day public holiday).

7—Amendment of section 7—Payments and other acts on holidays, Saturdays or Sundays

This amendment is consequential.

Part 4—Amendment of Shop Trading Hours Act 1977

8—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

This clause alters the name of the Central Shopping District to the Central Business District (CBD) Tourist Precinct, makes a minor technical amendment and amends the definition of public holiday (consequentially to other amendments).

9—Amendment of section 5—Exemptions

Subclause (1) extends the period for which an exemption may operate to 30 days instead of 14 days.

Subclause (2) amends section 5 to remove the prohibition on the Minister granting or declaring an exemption under the section that enables all shops, or a majority of shops, in the Metropolitan Shopping District to open pursuant to that exemption.

10—Amendment of section 13—Hours during which shops may be open

This clause amends section 13 of the Act to allow shops in the Central Business District (CBD) Tourist Precinct to be open from 11.00 am to 5.00 pm on public holidays (proposed subsection (2)), other than Good Friday, 25 December and until 12 noon on 25 April (proposed subsection (6a)).

Proposed subsection (5aa) enables shops in any shopping district to open on a part-day public holiday that falls on a weekday as if it were not a public holiday.

Proposed subsection (1) consolidates existing subsections (1) and (2) and the other amendments are consequential.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.