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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1958 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Business, Employment and Tourism) (10.46): Mr Speaker, I present the Trading Hours Bill 1996, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR DE DOMENICO: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

I take pleasure today in presenting to the Assembly the Trading Hours Bill 1996. Members would be aware of the difficulties experienced by various administrations over many years in coming to terms with the complexities and anomalies of the existing Trading Hours Act. The restrictive trading hours environment provided for in the existing Trading Hours Act gives a less than positive image of the ACT as an attraction for national and international tourism and as a place to do business. It is also at odds with changes in consumer purchasing patterns and improved technology and more efficient practices in the retail industry. The existing Act has also proven itself over many years to be extremely difficult to enforce, to the extent that no real attempt is now made to do so.

However, small business operators in the retail sector have consistently identified this de facto deregulated trading hours environment as one of the most significant issues affecting the viability of their businesses. This impact has been most strongly felt by small businesses in local shopping centres and by the communities that they serve. We recognised the difficulties that small businesses have been experiencing in Canberra, partly as a result of unclear, unworkable and unenforced trading hours legislation, and we gave a commitment to the ACT community to resolve the impasse. In retail parlance, I believe that we now have the goods.

To determine what the relevant issues were and develop appropriate strategies to address them, the Government initiated a review of trading hours and, through a social impact study, a review of the impact on consumers of trading hours and other retail considerations. The outcomes of these reviews enabled us to develop our retail policy, Striking a Balance. The trading hours review itself unequivocally identified extended trading hours of major supermarkets as the principal source of concern. Regulating trading hours for supermarkets in the existing town centres and Civic, as we are proposing in this Bill, is only one component of Striking a Balance. But it is one that is as vital as all of the other components in helping to reach an equitable solution for the community as a whole. Striking a Balance is about giving small business a stable retail environment, an environment in which they can begin to develop their business strategies with a greater degree of certainty and with a vision for better prospects and employment opportunities.

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