Page 2807 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 22 November 1989
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Wednesday, 22 November 1989
___________________________
MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
TRADING HOURS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1989
MRS NOLAN (10.30): I present the Trading Hours (Amendment) Bill 1989. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill for an Act to amend the Trading Hours Act 1962 seeks to change the trading hours from 12 noon on Saturday to 5 pm on Saturday. Canberra is the national capital of Australia, with a population of over 270,000 people, geographically surrounded by New South Wales and only six kilometres away from Queanbeyan, a New South Wales country town. This city of ours is a unique and beautiful one. However, it is no longer the "country town" but a city commensurate in status to other national capitals around the world.
Those of us who have lived here for some years are only too aware of how that status has changed. Currently you can buy a house in Canberra on a Saturday afternoon; certainly from some stores you can buy furniture and carpets, a car, petrol, a garage for your car, plants for the garden, food, meat from the supermarket, fruit and vegetables, alcohol or soft drink; and you can visit some of our public and private attractions such as the War Memorial, Telecom Tower, the national Parliament House, and Cockington Green, to name but a few.
The Act currently states the following exemptions, and I would like to read them because there does seem to be some difference in what is able to be purchased on a Saturday afternoon and what the schedule to the Trading Hours (Exempt Goods) Ordinance 1962 actually represents. These articles are: foodstuffs and non-alcoholic beverages; flowers; garden requisites; goods for use in decoration, renovation or repair of domestic premises; hardware; hobby and handicraft goods; ice; motor vehicles and parts for motor vehicles and engines; newspapers, books and periodicals; paints; plants, trees, shrubs, seeds and turf; petrol, fuel-oils and lubricants; secondhand goods; soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving cream and lotions, cosmetics, razors and razor blades, adhesive bandages and toilet paper and tissues; souvenirs, postcards, stationery, art works and reproductions of art works; timber and goods for use in woodworking; tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, cigarette-papers, cigarette-holders, matches, pipes and pipe-cleaners; tyres and tubes; and wallpaper.
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