Shop Trading Hours

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:24): Supplementary: why doesn't the Treasurer care that one of the small supermarkets will close, as accepted by all the residents of Millicent, resulting in a lack of jobs and loss of local business?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:24): That's a claim that the member makes and one of the traders makes and I understand that particular claim.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: What we have in Millicent is the extraordinary circumstance—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —where one of the local retailers, because they found that they were trading unlawfully above the 400 square metre magic limit, what they did was they moved the fridges and the freezers in from the walls to reduce the trading area of the shop from above 400 square metres to below 400 square metres so that they could lawfully trade. When you get to a situation as silly as that, where retailers have to move their cupboards or their fridges—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Now he's calling them silly—insult after insult!

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —or whatever it is, in from the extremities of their shop floor, squeeze all their customers up into narrower aisles because the shop trading laws say if you are under 400 square metres, or under 200 square metres in some other stores, you can trade whenever you want to, but if you happen to be at 401 square metres then you are not allowed to trade and so we have this extraordinary circumstance where fridges, freezers and heaven only knows what else were being moved to try to get it underneath the 400 square metre rule.

They are the crazy, dog's breakfast laws that the Labor Party and, indeed, others support. We have to provide special dispensations. We turn a blind eye to people moving freezers and fridges in from the walls, whatever it might happen to be, to get underneath the 400 square metre rule. It makes no sense to anyone other than the shoppies union and the people they control like the Labor Party.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!