The Shopping Centre Council of Australia (SCCA) has hit out at a recent decision by the SA Government allowing only retail stores in Adelaide CBD to trade on most public holidays. SCCA executive director Milton Cockburn has condemned the decision, which is supported by Premier Jay Weatherill.
“This is a bad start for a new Premier seeking to forge a new direction, since it is actually a return to the bad old days of last century when Sunday trading was once confined to the CBD,” Cockburn said.
Cockburn, who described the situation as ‘geographic apartheid’, said when the governments choose to intervene in the market place they must ensure policy consistency and fairness.
“This is manifestly not the case with this announcement, which will create winners and losers,” Cockburn said.
The SCCA is now seeking to persuade the government to extend the decision to the entire Adelaide metropolitan area. A spokesman from the Adelaide Arcade, which has about 70 shops, said traders are viewing the change as a positive and are happy with the decision.
Owner of Shirt Domain retail store in Adelaide CBD, Drew Grieve, said the fact that shops in outer city suburbs cannot benefit from the new rules is good, as this means shoppers will have to come into the CBD to spend money.
“Most other cities can trade in the CBD on bank holidays – Adelaide is just a bit backward with this,” Grieve said.
The new arrangements are part of a package of reforms that will be introduced next year following parliament’s approval of changes to the current holidays legislation.
The amendments will allow stores of any size located in the CBD to open from 11am to 5pm on key bank holidays such as New Years Day and Easter Monday.
Inconsistent state-by-state trading hours were a major concern expressed by retailers in the Productivity Commission’s review into retail this year.
