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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-28 Daily Xml
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TRADING HOURS

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:06): I have another supplementary question. So the minister is telling this chamber—

The PRESIDENT: Order! Honourable members should contain their excitement. The Hon Mr Stephens has a supplementary.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Minister, are you telling this chamber that there are no budgetary measures in place to actually cater for this, and that you are going to pull the money out of thin air?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:07): I have not indicated that fact. It is $5 million. The money will be budgeted for. You will have to wait until the budget comes out, and you will then find out where the money is coming from.

I would like to make the position quite clear. This arrangement is a historic arrangement. We have a situation where the chamber of commerce of South Australia (Business SA) and the representatives of the employees and retailers have got an agreement together to allow shopping on public holidays. It also allows for the creation of two part-public holidays on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. We are actually quite proud of this arrangement; we think it is the right thing to do.

We would not expect those opposite to ever do anything that would be of benefit to working people. On Christmas Eve at 10 to 9, when the vast majority of people are at home looking after their kids—putting them to bed ready for the next day, wrapping their presents—people out there are serving us, looking after our loved ones in aged-care homes and protecting the streets, as well as doctors and nurses looking after our health. They are all working when they would rather be home with their families on Christmas Eve, and we think it is right that they be given penalty rates.

There is also the issue that, by creating these public holidays, it allows people to be part of that national employment standard which allows them to choose not to work on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve and spend time with their families, and it allows the people who do choose to work on those days to be compensated appropriately. So we are quite proud of these reforms.

There seems to be a lot of mocking of Business SA, but Business SA has been the spokes-organisation for business in this state for many years, and Peter Vaughan is very highly respected in the business community. What we have here is Business SA, which covers thousands of employers throughout this state, coming to an agreement to overcome the ideological differences between employees and employers to cater for this historic policy measure and legislation.

It does fit beautifully and perfectly in line with our vision for this city, a vision which is not shared over there, a vision to revitalise this city, a vision which is all about having a city that is vibrant, somewhere that people want to come to work, play, live and the like. We are proud of this legislation: it is the right thing to do and it has widespread support throughout the community. There are people who oppose it, of course. You have Woolies and Coles opposing it. You have the hotel and pokie barons who oppose this. People do oppose it, but it has widespread support in the community.

It is a piece of legislation that will serve this state well decades into the future. It is something that has been a long time coming. I seek to give this information to members opposite, who have no vision for the city and no idea where they are going for the future. They are probably quite upset that we have found a solution for this trading hours issue.

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