Shop Trading Hours

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Treasurer on the topic of the shop trading hours deregulation trial.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Members would be well aware that just recently The Advertiser announced in a blaring headline on the front page that a 'shop 'til you drop', perhaps unfortunately titled, trial would be done over 30 days of deregulated and extended supermarket shopping hours for our state. My questions to the Treasurer are:

1. What was the process that led to the announcement of this trial?

2. How will the trial be evaluated?

3. What public health evidence is there to support such a trial?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:31): I am very mindful of the time and that we do have an important engagement across the road, so I will make my answer relatively brief, but I am happy to respond on another occasion. In terms of making the decision we took, we were aware of the health advice that was being provided to the government about the concerns that were being expressed about the pandemonium that was occurring within shopping centres, which was clearly from a health viewpoint not productive. It was also abhorrent in terms of social behaviour as well, but from a health perspective the thousands of people trying to cram into aisles cheek and jowl to get whether it be toilet paper or whatever else wasn't productive.

The health advice was to try to spread the shopping hours with the option of a longer period of time so that the people could actually shop over a longer period of time, in particular the more restricted hours through the weekend. Trading hours in the suburbs already allow you to shop for 21 of the 24 hours anyway, so that wasn't really the focus of the government's announcement. It was to try to extend the period, if the option was picked up.

As I have said in the paper this morning, the government was delighted with the response. Some supermarkets took up the option of extending their hours, some significantly on the weekend. One particular supermarket amongst the independent group extended their hours on one day by about seven hours in terms of extra trading hours. That was the from the Drakes Supermarkets group. Woolworths have extended their hours on weekends; Coles didn't. I don't believe Aldi did either. But the government's view was to allow the option for those that wanted to and, from a health viewpoint, to try to spread the shopping over a longer period of time, if traders wanted to do it.

I do note that one of the fierce opponents of shop trading hours extension, the Hon. Frank Pangallo, publicly urged me to do this and indeed took credit for it and was acknowledged in the Sunday Mail, I think, as having had a good week because he could say, 'I told you so.' So whilst he was a fierce opponent of extended shop trading hours, he not only advocated and called for it, he actually was pleased to accept credit for the government's, what he would have seen as, very wise decision in an emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic just for a period of 30 days.