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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-13 Daily Xml
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Shop Trading Hours

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:12): My question is to the Premier. What evidence does the government have to prove deregulation of retail opening hours will not disadvantage South Australian small and medium businesses and local suppliers or result in higher business costs and loss of trade through decreased market share?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:12): I thank the member for her question. The answer to that is as follows. Number one, we have had deregulated shop trading hours in regional South Australia for a very long period of time. In fact, I don't think they have ever been regulated outside of one small pocket in the South-East. What we know is that there haven't been adverse effects. There is good market competition there—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which keeps prices at the right level but it also provides people with greater amenity. Secondly, we also know that during the period where we did have to deregulate due to the coronavirus peak we did not have the catastrophising situation that some opposite were predicting, and in fact what we saw was greater amenity.

What we have at the moment, of course, is a situation where shops close at 5 o'clock on Saturday night and they don't open again until Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. It's an embarrassment.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's difficult in terms of tourism, it doesn't create jobs in South Australia and what it does is it drives people to online purchases away from the bricks-and-mortar businesses, and we can see this right around the country.

When we look at the evidence that is presented, South Australia has a disproportionately high attraction to online sales compared to other jurisdictions and that's because we are making it hard. The current arrangement makes it extraordinarily difficult for people to access the shops when they want to access those shops. Our position on this is very simple: if the shops want to open and people want to go to those shops, they should be free to make that decision themselves. Those opposite say that as soon as you deregulate, every single shop will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is not correct. It doesn't happen in regional South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and it didn't happen during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, things went along pretty sensibly. When we look at the rest of the nation, we can see exactly and precisely what can occur when you deregulate: people have greater amenity. At the moment, as the tourism minister in South Australia, I am surprised that the shadow tourism minister hasn't been advocating in her caucus for deregulation. Some of the constant feedback that we get from people coming from interstate is very simple: 'I can't believe the shops close at 5 o'clock on a Saturday, that they close at 5 o'clock on a Sunday.' We are missing out on so many sales and ultimately so many jobs—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —here in South Australia, especially during peak times of public holidays. So we are all for jobs; we are all for economic growth. We have already been able to move in terms of opening up for Boxing Day sales, for Black Friday sales and for Easter Monday sales. The Earth didn't stop revolving on its axis when that occurred. I will tell you what did happen during that time: more hours were provided to South Australians to get a job.

Those opposite might think that Sunday mornings is a time for people to spend time with their family and that's quite right. I can tell you what my kids were doing on a Sunday morning before 11 o'clock if they didn't have a job: they were in bed asleep. It wasn't like they were getting up playing happy families—they were asleep in bed. If they had a job, they would be out earning money, which I personally would have found very advantageous.

I think the time for this has come. The people of South Australia have spoken. They have spoken quite loudly about this issue. You very rarely find a situation on any topic in Australia where 70 per cent plus of people agree on this issue of further deregulation. The people of South Australia are extraordinarily clear on this issue. The only people standing in the way are the opposition here in South Australia, egged on by their mates in the trade union movement.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Florey, the member for Florey is perfectly entitled to ask a question of the Premier and to listen to that answer in silence. If members of this house have a view about the topic, it is certainly no invitation to commence shouting across the chamber.

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