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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4361 ..

MS HORODNY: Under the Trading Hours Act, the Minister already has the power, as he has said, to change the hours of supermarkets by instrument. We note that Mr Humphries has today announced his agreement to extending the trading hours for town centre supermarkets over Christmas, and I think it is a very sensible compromise on this issue. We believe that this approach allows more flexibility than Mr Osborne's Bill in matching the extended trading hours of supermarkets with the changing days on which Christmas and new year fall each year. It also allows the matching of supermarket times with the times at which other shops in town centre malls are planned to be open before Christmas. We also believe that the one-month extended hours period allowed in Mr Osborne's Bill, particularly its extension into January, is too long relative to typical shopping patterns over Christmas and would distort the intention of the Trading Hours Act. We will not be supporting the Bill.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (11.12): The Opposition will be supporting this legislation. I have to say at the outset that what the Government proposes in relation to this matter is really extraordinary. What the Government proposes in the first place is that we vote against this legislation and then trust that the Government, who have consistently taken the position all along that town centre supermarkets should not be open, is now going to allow town centre supermarkets to open. Something that was a calamity for the business sector in times past they are suddenly going to allow, but first we have to trust them and vote against this legislation. Quite frankly, I do not think that is good enough in the circumstances. The Government has consistently argued that town centre supermarkets are bad for small business in this Territory, and now they want to turn around and say, "Trust us; we do not mind opening town centre supermarkets on occasions".

Let us look at the proposal the Government has put up. According to Mr Humphries in this morning's paper, he used the existing powers to grant exemptions which he said "were a reasonable compromise that would ensure that town centre supermarkets would not profit excessively over local shops during the upcoming festive season". The proposal, as I understand it, is that the supermarkets will be able to trade up to 10.00 pm, Monday to Friday, and they will be able to open at 7 o'clock in the morning. Mr Humphries describes it as a reasonable compromise, presumably because he thinks the supermarkets in the local centres will be able to pick up the business between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. That is a good compromise! The town centre supermarkets can pick up the business from 7.00 am to 10.00 pm and the local supermarkets will be able to pick up the business from 10.00 pm to 7.00 am, and Mr Humphries describes that as a reasonable compromise. What a laugh! The Government has spent the last six months telling us that allowing a town centre supermarket to open will be the death of local supermarkets. Now he is trying to tell us that letting them trade at a busy time of the year when everyone is spending a lot of money will not hurt the local centres and is a reasonable compromise.

The truth is very different. The truth is that the Government is acutely embarrassed about this legislation. It has been an embarrassment from the first day Mr Humphries was railroaded into supporting this by his Chief Minister. Mr Humphries has been embarrassed from the first day, when Mrs Carnell twisted his arm to run this legislation,

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