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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4358 ..

Mr Moore: Don't ask me. I voted against it.

MR HUMPHRIES: I certainly would not ask you, Mr Moore, but I will tell you what the answer is. It was always contemplated that there be the power to grant exemptions to account for things such as Christmas and possibly other times of the year when there are unusually heavy demands on shopping centres.

Mr Osborne: What is unusual about Christmas? When did that change?

MR HUMPHRIES: It is unusual because it happens only once a year, Mr Osborne. That is what is unusual about it. I know Mr Osborne would like Christmas to happen once a month, and perhaps you should introduce legislation to that effect, Mr Osborne; but, unfortunately, under the tight-fisted Liberal Government that runs this Territory, Christmas occurs only once a year. We are very scroogelike in that respect. We ration it to once a year.

The exemption power exists in the legislation, in the first place, so that circumstances can be judged on a case-by-case basis to provide for particular needs of the shopping community. That is exactly what we have done in this case. The business community has indicated to us what kinds of trading hours they would like to operate in the shopping centres in which those supermarkets we are talking about are generally based. Based on what they have proposed to do, we have created trading hours around those shopping centres which will mean, essentially, that if you are a late-night shopper, or, indeed, a worker in one of those late-night shops, during this period leading up to Christmas and slightly beyond it you will have the capacity to do your grocery shopping in a town centre supermarket, if you wish to do that, at a time about one hour beyond the time the rest of the centre will trade for.

Supposing you work in a small shop in the Woden Plaza. You will be able to work until, say, 9 o'clock at night at that centre on one of the nights when it is open until that late, and after the shop closes you will have a further hour to go and do some grocery shopping, if you want to do it. Whole centres are opening until these hours, and I will table a copy of the trading hours. We have consulted with the centres and asked them for how long they propose to have general trading in the centres.

Mr Berry: So what about the shops you were supposed to be protecting over Christmas?

MR HUMPHRIES: I am glad Mr Berry has raised that point. We have consulted with the Small Business Council. I am sure you have not.

Mr Moore: I am sure you have, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure you have not gone anywhere near the Small Business Council on this issue, Mr Berry, or, for that matter, Mr Osborne or Mr Moore. I table that trading hours program. We have consulted with them, and they have expressed their acquiescence to a program to allow extending trading hours to accommodate the needs of those larger centres. The concept we have constantly tried to

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