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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2391 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

where are they going? They are not going to go to Woolworths in the town centre, so they will go to Woolworths in the group centre, or to Coles. There are a few other stores there - not enough - that do not belong to the major chains. So, the overflow will simply go to Woolworths, in the main, or to Coles. Think about that. What have you achieved?

Mr Moore: Nothing.

Mr Osborne interjected.

Mr Humphries: What is that, flatulence?

MR WOOD: You have not achieved anything to help that small store.

Mr Moore: Did you hear Mr Humphries's interjection about flatulence?

MR WOOD: Is it worth repeating?

Ms McRae: No.

MR WOOD: No, it is not. The legislation is simply not going to work, because it does not even go within cooee of achieving some help for those small so-called corner stores. In the Government's own words, it has acknowledged that it cannot achieve this. The Government has thrown up something so that it can have the appearance of attending to a problem; but it has not done that. If it were claimed - in case Mr Humphries wants to claim it - that there would be some residual effect on other small businesses in the group centres I would agree with the comment. There would be some residual effect; but there would be a corresponding loss to similar small businesses in the town centres. So, that does not achieve anything either. That does not take us anywhere.

Mr Speaker, we have a serious problem. Society is changing. We have different needs and different demands, and the Government has not been able to respond to them. This morning, 2CN held a talkback program on the retail hours issue and was inundated with callers, all outraged at the proposed changes. They repeated what we all know. The main point that they all made was that the restriction of trading hours will adversely affect their lifestyles, as lifestyles in the 1990s are very different from those of just a few years ago. Households are smaller, and there are more of them. In these smaller households - comprising single-parent families, parents and one or two children, or young single people - most of the adults work outside the home. No longer does the mother stay home and wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, cook on Wednesday, clean on Thursday and shop on Friday for the weekend. Responsibilities are shared, and the sharing requires flexibility in retail hours. Shopping has to be done out of "normal" work hours, and consumers should not be penalised for so doing. In many households containing young children, the shopping is done by one household member late at night, when the children are asleep. In this way, precious weekend hours are spent in other activities with the children, not standing in a supermarket queue.

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