Shop Trading Hours

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:40): My question is to the Treasurer: will he confirm that the government has requested that the shop trading hours legislation be drafted and, if so, when was the request made, and has the government requested any economic modelling on the impact of shop trading hours?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:40): Yes, we have obviously requested drafting of the shop trading hours legislation, and it was many weeks ago so I can't give the honourable member the exact date of the request for drafting. In relation to economic modelling, no, we don't have the capacity within—SafeWork SA is the agency that is drafting the legislation. Treasury doesn't have the capacity to do economic modelling in relation to the shop trading hours regulation or, indeed, any other legislative change that the government might introduce. We have the same economic capacity as the former government had in Treasury and in SafeWork SA—there has been no difference there.

In terms of modelling, we have relied on the advice broadly of national and interstate jurisdictions but in particular, in terms of modelling if one is talking about it, it has been mainly the national bodies such as the Productivity Commission and the Competition Policy Review. I think they are the two national bodies that have done modelling in relation to shop trading hours. That would be in general terms in terms of shop trading hours. Because South Australia's shop trading laws are markedly different to the shop trading laws in the bigger eastern states, their modelling and their estimation is obviously of a general nature rather than state or territory specific.