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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-08 Daily Xml
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Bills

Shop Trading Hours (Extension of Hours) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (11:02): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Shop Trading Hours Act 1977. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (11:03): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Shop Trading Hours (Extension of Hours) Amendment Bill 2022, which implements the government's election commitments on shop trading reform. Before I turn to the specifics of the bill, I want to outline the two main principles which have informed the government's approach to these reforms.

The first is that this government is strongly committed to working with both businesses and workers' representatives to forge consensus and deliver positive, practical change for the people of South Australia. The second is that this government recognises that shop trading legislation affects a wide variety of industry stakeholders across the entire South Australian community. Those stakeholders should be at the core of the decision-making process. We are never going to agree on all aspects of all matters, but this government will always listen and take into account a range of opinions from all stakeholders.

The legislation is a product of significant consultation with key industry groups that has occurred both prior to the election and since. I particularly want to thank Business SA, Foodland, IGA, Metcash, the Motor Trade Association, the SA Retail Association and the SDA for their considered and constructive feedback. As a direct consequence of this consultation, the government is in a position to implement not only our election commitments but a number of further reforms which were widely supported by stakeholders.

The bill delivers on our headline election promises by amending section 13 of the act to extend Sunday trading so that shops can open from 9am instead of 11am and to permanently allow Boxing Day trading in the city and suburbs. The bill amends section 13 of the act to codify longstanding ministerial exemptions which allow extended midnight trading on Black Friday and on weekdays in the direct lead-up to Christmas.

The bill also amends section 13 of the act to permit shops to trade on additional public holidays, such as when an ordinary public holiday falls on a Sunday and an additional public holiday then takes place on the Monday. The bill inserts a new section 13B, which extends provisions that already apply to work on Sundays and confirms employees rostered on public holidays must have voluntarily agreed to work on those days.

These are sensible reforms which strike a fair balance between the interests of large and small business, workers and consumers. These changes also continue to support our thriving independent supermarket sector to compete against the bigger market players. Importantly, this bill also seeks to eliminate the outrageous practice of the former Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas, in issuing blanket trading exemptions across the metropolitan area, which were fundamentally inconsistent with the careful balance struck by this parliament.

The policy of this government is clear: the rules set by parliament in the Shop Trading Hours Act should apply to all stakeholders equally and should only be departed from where there is industry consensus. Ministerial exemptions do not exist to simply carve out sections of the legislation that the government of the day finds inconvenient. Ministerial exemptions exist for those exceptional circumstances where they are needed to support special events of particular significance to the people of South Australia, and only where there is consensus amongst industry stakeholders.

This bill reforms the ministerial exemption powers under section 5 of the act to require the minister to consult with both business and worker representatives before issuing an exemption, and to be satisfied that the exemption is supported by a majority of interested stakeholders, including representatives of both businesses and workers.

This bill also confirms the minister must not grant exemptions which are so extensive as to undermine the controls on shop trading hours in the act, and confers standing on industry stakeholders in any judicial review proceedings challenging a ministerial exemption. That is consistent with the government's approach in this bill to regularise those frequently issued ministerial exemptions such as extended trading hours in the lead-up to Christmas. By permanently incorporating these arrangements into the act, we are minimising the need to rely on ministerial exemptions in the future.

The collaborative and consultative approach the Labor government has taken to these reforms is in stark contrast to the bull-headed 'my way or the highway' approach of the former Marshall Liberal government. The former government, in particular the former Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas, pursued what can only be described as an ideological crusade for the total deregulation of shop trading in South Australia. That obsession with 24/7 trading was comprehensively rejected. It was rejected by consumers. It was rejected by trade unions. It was rejected by business advocates. And it was rejected by this parliament—twice.

In opposition, members of this government were not simply obstructionist on this issue. We were willing to work in good faith with the then Liberal government to achieve positive reform. In 2019, the now Premier held out an olive branch and offered to support changes to extend Sunday trading. That offer was rejected by the Liberal Party, including the now Leader of the Opposition, David Speirs. If the Liberal government had supported the proposal, the people of South Australia would have had extended Sunday hours trading, as this bill proposes, way back in 2019.

That reform would have been supported by local businesses, given more choice for consumers and more hours for workers, but the Liberals were so obsessed with the total deregulation that this important reform was delayed by years. Their focus on ideology over substance was a betrayal of the people of South Australia and they faced a reckoning at the ballot box as a consequence.

That will not be the approach of the Malinauskas Labor government. We are getting on with the job of working together with both businesses and workers to deliver these fair and sensible reforms. I urge the now Liberal opposition to learn from their mistakes and support these reforms. Changing their minds on this issue would be a sensible capitulation by the Leader of the Opposition, David Speirs. I commend the bill to the council and seek to have the explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

EXPLANATION OF CLAUSES

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Shop Trading Hours Act 1977

3—Amendment of section 4—Interpretation

This clause removes obsolete references to the Glenelg Tourist Precinct and makes consequential changes to definitions.

4—Amendment of section 5—Exemptions

This clause changes the maximum period for which class or general exemptions can operate from 30 days to 14 days and alters the process for declaring or granting an exemption.

5—Amendment of section 7—Inspectors

This clause allows the Minister to appoint inspectors rather than the Governor.

6—Amendment of section 13—Hours during which shops may be open

This clause amends section 13 to allow general Sunday trading in the Greater Adelaide Shopping District from 9 am (instead of 11am), to allow new trading days, or extended trading hours, in that shopping district on certain days as set out in proposed new section 13(2).

7—Amendment of section 13A—Restrictions relating to Sunday trading

This is consequential to clause 8.

8—Insertion of section 13B

This clause inserts a new section 13B providing that the shopkeeper of a shop is only entitled to open the shop on a Sunday or a public holiday in accordance with section 13 if each employee who works in the shop during that Sunday or public holiday has voluntarily accepted an offer by the shopkeeper to work on that day.

9—Repeal of Schedule 1A

This clause removes the obsolete Schedule relating to the Glenelg Tourist Precinct.

Schedule 1—Transitional provision

1—Inspectors appointment to continue

This is consequential to clause 5 and ensures that the inspectors appointed by the Governor under the current provisions will continue to be appointed.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. L.A. Curran.

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