Shop Trading Hours

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): Second and final supplementary: given the Treasurer's original answer that businesses in South Australia will be better off, will the Treasurer guarantee that no business will be worse off under the deregulation of shop trading hours? If he can't guarantee that, will he outline the support that he intends to put in place for businesses that will be worse off?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:29): What a silly, puerile, juvenile, childish—and any other adjective you want to use—question from the Leader of the Opposition.

The PRESIDENT: Please don't debate the question, Treasurer.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: That's enough? Okay, I think those four perhaps adequately describe the Leader of the Opposition. What a silly question to be asking. What politician anywhere can guarantee the future business viability of an individual business in South Australia? For the Hon. Mr Maher to stand up in this chamber and embarrass himself by asking such a juvenile question. As if any politician could guarantee that, in a competitive business environment, an individual business, or indeed every individual business in South Australia, as to what the impact on those individual businesses would be from the implementation of a particular government policy, is a nonsense.

There is any number of pieces of research from the Productivity Commission, from the Competition Policy Review, and a number of other learned pieces of work, both nationally and interstate, which give, in the general course, an indication as to what would occur in economic terms as a result of, broadly, deregulation of the shop trading hours in those particular jurisdictions. But, to actually even ask the question that a politician could guarantee the individual circumstances of every business in South Australia is, as I said, juvenile and a silly question.

The PRESIDENT: I will allow you a further supplementary.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: It's the President's decision. Order on the government benches! Leader of the Opposition, ask the question.