Shop Trading Hours

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. C.M. Scriven:

That this council—

1. Expresses its support for the decision by Millicent residents to oppose the deregulation of shop trading hours;

2. Acknowledges the Millicent community's overwhelming support for local businesses and local jobs; and

3. Calls on the government to support the Millicent community's efforts to support local businesses and local jobs and oppose the deregulation of shop trading hours.

(Continued from 20 June 2018.)

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (17:13): I rise to speak to this motion. I will keep this brief because the community of Millicent has responded very clearly and loudly to this issue. Community is a word we do not hear as much as we should. Time has become a luxury, just like the word 'community'. However, it is well-known that when you have a strong community amazing things can be achieved. A strong community should never be ignored, especially one that can take on the big end of town and not only take them on but also win.

When Woolworths put to the fine community of Millicent in 2006 to test the public opinion on extended shop trading hours, 66 per cent of respondents voted against the proposal. In the world of politics, we would call that a crushing defeat. It is no surprise that Millicent made no change to their shop trading hours, but something quite extraordinary followed: in 2017, at the request of Woolworths, the Millicent council had another vote on the issue of shop trading hours, which was conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission, and 80 per cent of the eligible Millicent electors voted against no change in the trading hours—80 per cent.

The member for MacKillop is well aware of the situation he finds himself in. In an article published in The Advertiser on 5 April this year, the member is quoted as saying that deregulation would make it 'very hard' on Millicent's two independent supermarkets. However, he went on to say that the fight was 'not worth chopping my neck off and hanging myself out to dry'.

The member for MacKillop seems like a friendly, understanding kind of guy but when your party has shackled you to a position that 80 per cent of a community is against—and perhaps even the member himself—a community that can take on the big end of town and win, I guess all I can say to the member is good luck. Unlike those opposite, Labor has taken the time to ask the small businesses and employees in Millicent why they back the current regulated trading hours, the most regulated trading hours of any city or township in this state.

A petition opposing the deregulation of trading hours which recently did the rounds in Millicent, collected over 1,000 signatures. This was not in a month; this was in a week and a half. Whether it is local independent supermarkets, florists or clothing shops, local business owners and their customers alike are sending a resounding message that locals must back locals, and that is what they are doing.

Consultation is an amazing thing. I am guessing that there is not a line-up outside the Treasurer's or the Premier's door pleading for the state government to deregulate trading hours statewide. The Premier's and Treasurer's closed-door approach on this issue appears to have a few of their colleagues questioning their insistence on pushing a policy that hurts small businesses, wholesalers and workers. It is hurting those who the Liberal Party once called their friends in small business—friends like Franz Knoll.

There is a little word, a word I will continue to bang on about in this chamber, a word I think is lacking and we are all the poorer for it: community. What is good for the community is good for business, and when you close your door and do not listen to a strong community, all I can say is watch out.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.