Shop Trading Hours

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:14): My question is to the Treasurer regarding shop trading hours. How many requests has the Treasurer received from consumers in country towns, such as Whyalla, to take away their ability to shop during unrestricted trading hours and to revert to draconian regulated shopping hours that Adelaide consumers are lumbered with?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:15): I think there's a simple answer to that: none, nil, nought, zero, zip, zilch, diddly squat, and there are probably a few others I could have slotted in there as well, but they are the only ones I could think of quickly. Certainly, those country consumers, and obviously the Hon. Mr Stephens knows Whyalla very well—I have spoken previously about an area I know very well, which is Mount Gambier—and the trading hours in Whyalla, Mount Gambier and Victor Harbor are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order: the honourable member asked a question and it has been well and truly answered in the first nine words.

The PRESIDENT: The minister is entitled to answer the question as he sees fit, but thank you for the point of order.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I think the leader should take his medicine, Mr President. The good residents of Whyalla, whom the Hon. Mr Stephens knows well, and Mount Gambier, whom I know well, enjoy the absolute freedom to shop when traders decide they want to trade. So when traders want to trade and when shoppers want to shop in Whyalla, Mount Gambier and other places like that, they are able to do so.

There is, and the honourable member would know better than I, feedback from Whyalla, but certainly I can speak for Mount Gambier, that there is no complaint from workers and families down there about people being forced to work. In fact, there are people who are delighted to work in those particular retail outlets at the times that those traders decide to trade. The traders are quite happy to trade. In many cases they don't trade on Good Friday or Christmas Day, even though they are entitled to do so under the laws of the land as they stand at the moment.

In Whyalla, and the Hon. Mr Stephens would know better than I, I suspect there are Foodland and IGA stores—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: That is correct.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —actually Foodland and IGA stores trading successfully with Coles and Woolworths—in Whyalla. I know that is certainly the case in Mount Gambier and they haven't been sent to the wall. They have been trading quite successfully against Coles and Woolworths in those regional cities, and trading, obviously, quite successfully in those particular areas.

The traders are prepared to trade, the workers are prepared to work, the shoppers and the families are delighted to shop and the law allows them to do so in those particular areas. So no, I haven't been flooded with any, or a single one, complaint from the areas of Whyalla and Mount Gambier in relation to problems or concerns about the unrestricted trading laws in those particular areas.

That will be the challenge for this chamber on 2 or 3 July, whenever it is—and I have already given notice today—when the shop trading hours legislation is introduced into this chamber. There will be an opportunity for members to be able to express their point of view and I think also respond to the questions that will be put to them in relation to why it is able to happen in places as far distant from CBD Adelaide as Mount Barker, where Foodland and co trade happily with Coles and Woolworths, and as far distant as Whyalla and Mount Gambier.

The world has not fallen in and there doesn't appear to have been the widespread concerns of businesses being wiped out. The Foodlands and IGAs of this world seem to be quite happily able to trade in those particular areas, even in a completely deregulated environment, bearing in mind that the government isn't going to completely deregulate in the metropolitan area because there will still be restrictions on Good Friday, there will still be restrictions on Christmas Day and there will still be restrictions on ANZAC Day morning in metropolitan Adelaide as a result of the possible passage of the legislation.