Retail Trading Hours

The Greens (WA) question the economic merits of extending shopping hours further and remain concerned about impacts on retail employees, small business and family life.

We recognise that for some people (particularly working women and shift workers) the possibility of greater convenience that extended shopping hours offers may seem to be an attractive solution for addressing work-life balance. However this convenience may be short-lived if large businesses push small business out of the marketplace due to the difficulty of trading for extended hours.

These surviving large businesses may return to standard trading hours once competition is reduced. In this environment of reduced competition, the variety of products on the shelves may be reduced and prices may rise. For these reasons, independent retailers and small business must be protected. 

Goals

The Greens (WA) want: 

• support for independent retailers and small business
• to prevent power abuse by large corporations 
• improved bargaining power of producers, manufacturers and suppliers against the corporate supermarket oligopolies
• maximum choice of products for consumers
• a commercial sector that facilitates work-life balance. 

Initiatives

The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that: 

• encourage and protect growers markets
• respect the outcome of the 26 February 2005 referendum on retail trading hours
• encourage local production
• reduce food miles - the distance travelled by products from producer to retailer to consumer
• encourage people-oriented development
• if unfair trading practices can be adequately addressed, provide incentives of extra trading hours for business that substantially reduce food miles and provide the fairest wages and conditions for their staff.

Background

The issue of trading hours deregulation is both complex and significant as Australia is recognised as having one of the highest levels of retail market dominations anywhere in the world.  However, at present, the exception is Western Australia, which remains the state with the highest proportion of independent retailers, a position that is likely to change dramatically if trading hours are extended for the corporate retail sector.

There are two major reasons behind the current increased pressure for further trading hours deregulation in Western Australia. Firstly, the Howard Government’s major IR changes pushed more workers into signing Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), many of which considerably reduced, or even abolished, penalty rates.  Average working hours, paid and unpaid, continued to increase in this country as a result.  Large retail corporations were able to force their employees to sign AWAs and this gave them a further cost advantage over small and medium sized independent businesses to operate after normal working hours. (The Greens (WA) support the removal of AWAs – see the Australian Greens Employment and Industrial relations policy)

Secondly, the introduction of National Competition Policy in 1995 saw, amongst other things, the removal of Section 49 of the Trade Practices Act (preventing unfair Price Discrimination), which meant more potential market power abuse by big businesses retailers over Australia’s supply sector.  The National Competition Council used the threat of tranche payment fines to try to force states into a new corporate-biased “free” market agenda. As well as trading hours deregulation, these forced deregulatory measures included removal of Statutory Marketing Arrangements in Australia’s primary production sectors, like the dairy industry, leaving the bargaining power of many Australian producers much weaker.  (The Greens (WA) have opposed the forced implementation of National Competition Policy – see Australian Greens Economic Policy).