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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-09 Daily Xml
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Shop Trading Hours

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on how a combination of the South Australian government's policy to deregulate shop trading hours and income tax relief announced in the federal budget will benefit the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:18): I thank the member for his question and I welcome him to this chamber. On this side of the chamber, we are interested in growing our economy. We are interested in creating jobs. We want to keep our next generation here in South Australia. There are two things that can converge to create more jobs in South Australia. Number one is the deregulation of shop trading hours in South Australia. Those opposite would have you believe that this is some sort of conspiracy with the big end of town. That is their only argument: that somehow there is some collusion with the big end of town to deregulate shop trading hours.

I will tell you the people who really want deregulated shop trading hours. There are two separate groups, which we value on this side of the chamber. Number one are the people who are employees, wanting a job and wanting more hours; people who want to earn more money and take control of their lives. People who work in the retail sector want more hours. The second group of people in South Australia, completely ignored by those opposite, are consumers. In this modern day and age, you can get on your phone and you can order clothing and you can order a holiday overseas. You can do anything you like 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Yet those opposite want to restrict the amount of hours that people who have invested in bricks and mortar businesses can trade in South Australia, restricting their ability to compete in this new, modern environment. This is actually shameful. It's holding South Australia back.

Let me tell you, when both Victoria and Tasmania deregulated shop trading hours, what happened? They created more jobs in those two jurisdictions. The Productivity Commission—those opposite would like to argue with the Productivity Commission because they are so much smarter than anybody else in the room. The reality is the Australian Productivity Commission said that if there was deregulation of shop trading hours in Queensland this would create $200 million worth of additional economic activity in Queensland, and they referenced South Australia and they said that we were up for a similar amount here in our jurisdiction.

We on this side of the parliament would like to see our economy grow. We would like to see more jobs in South Australia, and we would like to see our young people in this state stay here in South Australia, and we want those opposite to start listening. The Leader of the Opposition has been making this sort of virtue of the fact that he is going to go and visit all 47 electorates. What was he doing before? Not going beyond Gepps Cross and not going beyond the tollgate. We listen to every person in this state and, beyond doubt, the people of South Australia—employees and consumers—want further deregulation of shop trading hours in this state because they want to spend more money that will create more jobs.

That's why I was delighted with last night's federal budget when it was brought down, because one of the centre points of this budget was tax relief—tax relief for mums and dads in South Australia, families in South Australia and for businesses in South Australia. Seven hundred thousand South Australians will benefit from further tax relief from last night's budget. I am particularly pleased that low and middle income earners will be paying less tax in South Australia from later this year. In fact, I am led to believe that there is something like up to $530 per annum for those on low and middle incomes. If that money is in their pocket, they will be spending it in our economy. If they are spending it in our economy, it will be creating jobs, and that's precisely what we desperately need in South Australia.

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