By Raquel Mustillo
TREASURER Rob Lucas has reignited debate over the state’s “archaic, confusing and shambolic” shop trading laws which restrict two of Millicent’s supermarkets from opening on Sundays and public holidays.
Despite the Millicent community voting twice to retain the town’s rare regulated shopping regime and the defeat of retail reforms in parliament in 2018, the State Government has announced plans for a statewide referendum on trading hour deregulation.
Millicent is the only regional town in South Australia where supermarkets larger than 400 square metres – Woolworths and Foster’s Foodland – are unable to open on Sundays and public holidays.
The two stores are required to close at 6pm on most weekdays and 5pm on Saturdays with just one supermarket – Millicent IGA – able to trade without restrictions.
Speaking to The Border Watch, Mr Lucas said the State Government did not support the retention of the current legislation as it facilitated a “completely haphazard implementation of shop trading hours across the board”.
“Every year, I get a request from the Millicent Business Community Association to allow Millicent to have extended trading hours for Easter Saturday and the Geltwood Festival because the laws that everyone said they voted for don’t allow it,” he said.
“It seems to be a crazy way of running South Australia that the Treasurer, who is in Adelaide, has to issue a gazette to allow two shops in Millicent to trade on Easter Saturday and festival day.
“The shops should be in a position where if they want to trade on festival day or on Easter Saturday they can trade and if they don’t want to trade, they don’t have to.”
Mr Lucas stressed any deregulation of shop trading hours would not force Millicent retailers to open, but would instead provide consumers with more choice and shop owners with more flexibility.
“Our proposal is not to allow exemptions for one little area here and one little area there, but have a broad set of rules and the big test will be whether people will want to shop or not,” he said.
“If people don’t want to shop at Foster’s, they will go somewhere else.
“If Foster’s don’t want to trade, they don’t have to – they might make a commercial judgement and that is a call for the business, but we are giving them the choice.”
The government’s referendum bill will be introduced into the Upper House tomorrow (Thursday), but is unlikely to pass the Legislative Council with Labor indicating the party will not support the proposal.
The Greens, SA-Best and Advance SA parliamentarian John Darley – who voted with Labor to kill off the government’s proposed reforms in 2018 – have also flagged they will block the proposed referendum.
But the government’s immutable stance on deregulation has sparked anger among the town’s independent supermarket workers, with Millicent IGA manager Sukhchain Dhaliwal saying changes to the status quo would “kill us”.
Mr Dhaliwal said a majority of the George Street retailers profits stemmed from its extended trading, estimating the store was three times busier on a Sunday than any other day.
“A major part of our sales are on Sundays because on the other weekdays the other supermarkets are open and obviously they have a bigger store, they have more choices and people do a major part of their shopping there,” he said.
“We normally have about 10 people working on a Sunday, but if the other supermarkets are allowed to start operating on the same days, we would only have four people working.
Foster’s Foodland manager Dave Foster – who is vehemently to any changes to Millicent’s shop trading hour regime – said he was unsurprised by the government’s renewed push to deregulate the state.
“I am not surprised at all because the Liberals haven’t listened to Millicent from the start, they have just completely ignored us,” he said.
“Deregulation will have a huge impact on the town, because three supermarkets in a town this big is not sustainable.
“We will spread out staff out over the seven days and our wage bill might be slightly higher on a Sunday until one of the supermarkets closes, which is inevitable.”
Long-time deregulation proponent Woolworths welcomed the government’s proposal, with a spokesperson saying “the referendum will allow all those views to be heard and give South Australian voters the final say.”
Labor parliamentarian Clare Scriven said the opposition remained opposed to total deregulation and could not see any way it would support the referendum.
“Total deregulation is designed to help Coles and Woolies increase their dominance over local retailers like Foodland and IGA and will hurt locally-owned small business,” she said.
“Millicent has expressed its opposition to shopping hours being totally deregulated because local people know it would force the closure of one of Millicent’s small supermarkets.
“A statewide referendum would see the views of locals swamped by those of the capital city.”
Member for MacKillop Nick McBride said the State Government was aware of his long-standing views on retaining the status quo, which he said was based on supporting retailers and the community who have been against deregulation.
However, he said he fully supported the need for deregulated shopping hours in South Australia.
“I will watch with interest to see the progress of a referendum,” he said.
