Parliamentary Speeches
Shop Trading Bill 2008 ( 17/06/2008)
Mr DONALD PAGE (Ballina) [7.43 p.m.]: As shadow Minister for Small Business and Regulatory Reform, I support any measures that reduce red tape as it applies to small business in New South Wales. The purpose of the bill is to deregulate shop trading hours in New South Wales, especially the current restrictions on Sunday retail trading. The bill will repeal the Shop and Industries Act 1962, which does not reflect the need for consumers today to be able to access retail outlets seven days a week. The legislation will also make it more certain when restricted trading hours will occur, that is, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Anzac Day before 1.00 p.m., Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It clears up the current anomaly of the restrictions applying to the public holiday applicable to the day of significance, such as when Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and the public holiday falls on the following Monday. Under this legislation it will be clear that the trading restrictions will apply to the actual day and not the subsequent public holiday.
I remind the House that the Greiner Government was the first to allow Sunday trading by exemption and to remove all government restrictions on Monday to Saturday trading. I note that the bill has the support of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia and the New South Wales Business Chamber. The Government is portraying this bill as a reduction in red tape, but it is only a minor reduction. There is still a long way to go if the Government is going to get serious about it. A recent report on 6 May 2008 released by Westpac shows that New South Wales small businesses spend on average 20 hours a week on administration and red tape compared to 15 hours in Queensland. This means that New South Wales businesses are spending 33 per cent more time on red tape than Queensland businesses. Whilst some of this time will be due to Federal regulation, which is relevant to both States, the difference between New South Wales and Queensland is directly related to the additional regulatory burden that applies in New South Wales.
The Government must address this issue with a view to a range of regulatory reforms. This bill will reduce administration in a very limited way, by removing the requirement for general shops to make a one-off application for exemption to trade on Sunday. When an application is approved, a certificate is granted for an unlimited time. The removal of a one-off administrative task will do little to reduce red tape. Furthermore, the application has a fee of $100, which again does very little to reduce the ongoing costs of doing business in New South Wales. I urge the Government to take further measures to seriously reduce the burden of red tape on businesses in New South Wales.
I have sympathy also for tenants in shopping centres in areas that do not have much demand for Sunday trading, for example in smaller country towns. These small business operators will probably resent having to trade on a Sunday when there is little business on offer. However, often the requirement to trade when the shopping centre is open is written into their lease, so one can argue that those shop owner tenants are aware they have to trade on Sundays if the shopping centre is open when they enter their lease agreement. Whilst I support the legislation, much more needs to be done to reduce red tape in New South Wales, including such things as the reduction in the number and magnitude of State taxes, the reduction in the number of new regulations, the abolition of existing regulations wherever possible, and the consolidation of administrative requirements so that New South Wales businesses spend less time satisfying State Government impositions on small business.
