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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2402 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

You will tell us when you get back into government, presumably, and by that stage it will be too late. Mr Speaker, the people of the ACT are not going to buy that line. Tell us now, so that we can know what our fate would be under a Labor government.

Mr Whitecross: Whom did you tell before the last election that you were going to close supermarkets?

MR HUMPHRIES: We said that we would review the policy.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (10.23): I am really quite amazed at this. As someone who has grown up in Canberra I have seen trading hours, Monday to Friday, from nine until five, and then we had Friday night shopping until 9 o'clock, and then we had Saturday morning shopping from 9 o'clock until 12 o'clock. It is only since 1992, Mr Speaker, that we have had very much extended trading hours. As Mr Humphries has just said, we have 85 hours of trading. I have just done some very quick sums and that is more than 50 per cent of the total week. There are 83 other hours left in the week, but 85 hours is more than 50 per cent of the total week. In Mr De Domenico's Bill, the Government's Bill, we have trading from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm in the town centres, Monday to Thursday, 7.00 am to 10.00 pm on Friday, 7.00 am to 7.00 pm on Saturday, and 7.00 am to 5.00 pm on Sunday. That is far in excess of anything in any other State. How many town centres are we talking about? We are talking about four. How many stores are we talking about, Mr Speaker? You can count them on both hands. We have trading for 85 hours a week under this Bill, the most liberal trading hours in Australia. That is a fact.

Since 1992 a number of our small suburban shops have gone under, and, Mr Speaker, it is not just hearsay that one of the biggest reasons why they have gone under is unrestricted trading hours. I think that is a fact. I can recall when this Bill came in. One of my colleagues, either Mr Humphries or Mr De Domenico, was talking about it and said that in going around and talking to local stores - I think it was Mr Humphries - about 30 or 40 per cent of those spoken to said that the single biggest problem they had was unrestricted trading hours for the big stores, the big town centres. I would go along with that, Mr Speaker, because I also went around before the last election and talked to a lot of stores. Apart from that, before I got back into this place in August 1994 I acted for a few small stores who went broke. Those stores were viable until such time as we had 24-hour trading. I remember a few of those store owners who are now bankrupt saying, "If we had been able to trade from about 8.00 pm to 11.00 pm, if we had had that window of opportunity, we would not have gone bankrupt".

I find it quite amazing and actually quite amusing, Mr Speaker, to hear Mr Wood talk about the effect that this Bill will have on people's lifestyles. If people in this modern day and age, with the flexibility virtually every job in this community provides, cannot find some time within the 85 hours to go to the store of their choice in Civic, in Belconnen, in Tuggeranong or in Woden I do not think they are really trying, Mr Speaker.

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