National Retailers Association chief executive Dominique Lamb has slammed the Queensland Government for last-minute amendments to trading hour reforms, describing the changes as nonsensical.
The amended reforms, passed by the Queensland Parliament last night, will place a five-year moratorium on applications to lift Sunday trading restrictions for 21-regions across the state, and will see regional centres open at 8am instead of 7am, as was originally proposed.
Lamb said that the changes, made to secure support for the passage of the reforms with the state’s cross-bench, are a missed opportunity to modernise retail regulation in Queensland.
“Claims that we’re going to make Queensland into more of a cosmopolitan state and help retailers access that tourism dollar have really fallen short,” she said.
“Especially with Amazon coming in, to do this to our retailers is a travesty, a real missed opportunity.
“This hasn’t been a democratic process, this was something that up until Monday we weren’t even aware of,” she continued.
The trading hour reforms were originally modelled on recommendations from a review chaired by former Labor MP John Mickel last year, which Lamb believes should have been debated on the floor as is, however despite the changes she has welcomed other reforms in the Bill.
The original changes will allow butchers and hardware stores to open from 6am on Sundays, while trading hours for non-exempt shops on Sunday and most public holidays -other than in specific tourist areas- will be standardised across the state from 9am to 6pm.
Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman has said the result was not what was expected following the Mickel review, but that the ARA would move to attempt to change the legislation.
“Queensland is a state that many people flock to for holidays – in particular, because of the very temperate climate,” he said. “Tourism will be severely hampered, and the ability for retail to grow, and for young people to be employed in Australia’s most dynamic and exciting industry, unfortunately, will not occur.”
Modelling conducted by Queensland’s Treasury on the impact of the original Bill, prior to the crossbench deal, valued the potential positive impact of the reform at $79 million and 945 jobs.
The Liberal-National Party, One Nation and Katter’s Australia Party have been longstanding opponents of the reforms, which the Palaszczuk Labor Government has been trying to push through since April, arguing alongside the Master Grocers Association that the changes will benefit large business at the expense of small traders.
Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said the five-year moratorium will prevent a “revolving door” of trading hour changes in the state to the benefit of small and large businesses.
“What this package now includes following discussions with industry and the cross bench is a really great way to standardise trading hours across the state,” she said on Tuesday.
“Rather than this revolving door of instability of trading hours in this state, during the moratorium…there will not now be an opt in, we’ll keep it that way [for] stability.”
But the NRA, alongside the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) don’t believe the reforms will inhibit smaller traders, with Lamb arguing that a five-year review period on the changes is far too long for retailers to wait for adequate changes.
“Ultimately it means Queensland must wait another five years for potentially more reform,” she said.
LNP Member for Mermaid Beach Raymond Stevens said in May that Labor had “botched” the legislation, and that Coles and Woolworths stood to benefit from the reforms to the detriment of small business.
“There’s no doubt in my mind or the minds of my colleagues that the current system has become far too complicated,” he said. “[However], the Palaszczuk Labor government has botched this legislation.”
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