Page 3170 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 11 September 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
TRADING HOURS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1991
MR HUMPHRIES (11.45): Mr Speaker, I present the Trading Hours (Amendment) Bill 1991. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Mr Speaker, the Bill for an Act to amend the Trading Hours Act seeks to change the trading hours operating in legislation in the ACT presently from 12.00 noon on Saturday until 5.00 pm on Saturday. Canberra is the national capital of our country. It has a population of nearly 300,000; it is geographically surrounded by New South Wales and is only six kilometres from a major New South Wales city, namely, Queanbeyan. We are no longer a country town but a city comparable in status to other national capitals around the world, or, at least, we are becoming so.
Those of us who have lived here for some years are only too aware of how the status of Canberra has changed. Even in the short 14 years that I have lived in Canberra I have noticed a quite appreciable change in Canberra's nature and status. However, in some respects, Mr Speaker, I think it could be said that Canberra has, until the recent past, borne more characteristics of a country town than of a cosmopolitan capital. You can, for example, in the ACT at the present time buy a house in Canberra on a Saturday afternoon. You can buy furniture and carpet from some stores, quite legally. You can buy a car or petrol, or a garage for your car, plants for the garden, meat and food from a supermarket, fruit and vegetables from the markets, alcohol or soft drink, or even visit some of Canberra's tourist attractions such as the National Gallery or Parliament House.
But until the advent of the Alliance Government, Mr Speaker, only a little over 18 months ago, if on a Saturday afternoon you wanted to buy jewellery, or clothing, or footwear, or gifts, you had to travel to New South Wales. Restrictions preventing Saturday afternoon trading undoubtedly hindered Canberra business in competition with New South Wales. Canberra lost business because, unlike New South Wales, the ACT did not allow retail trading up until 5.00 pm. Indeed, 12.00 noon was shut up time, and that was that. We had a situation on Saturday afternoons, up until that time, where one could look through the windows of some department stores, some shops at Manuka or wherever; but, if you wanted to purchase a suit or a dress for a night out, or buy some shoes for the children or whatever, you would find yourself unable to do so, and Canberra business lost out as a result.
Mr Speaker, we have, since the Alliance Government, experimented with the notion of Saturday afternoon trading. I think it can only be said that that experiment has been successful. Saturday afternoon trading has been a boon, both for consumers and for retailers in this Territory, and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .