Labor vows to allow Boxing Day trade, extend Sunday shopping hours to 9am

Labor is promising to extend shop trading hours in a major concession from former Shoppies’ union boss Peter Malinauskas.

Labor is vowing to allow Boxing Day trading and extend Sunday openings to 9am under a shopping hours policy it will take to next March’s state election.

If elected, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas will allow the Boxing Day trade in city and suburbs to continue – suburban shops have been able to open then only since 2018.

Mr Malinauskas also is promising a Labor government would extend Sunday hours from 11am – a concession he offered a month after the Liberals were elected in 2018 on a platform of allowing shops to open when they wanted.

A former shop assistants’ union state secretary, Mr Malinauskas is arguing Labor’s position is “largely in sync with Business SA”, the state’s peak chamber of commerce and industry, which in August walked back from support for full trading hours deregulation.

Labor and crossbenchers have blocked the Liberals’ bid for full deregulation, despite this being a key plank of their 2018 election platform, and also scuttled plans for a referendum on the issue at the election.

Mr Malinauskas said Labor was committed to a sensible shop trading hours laws and would continue to oppose deregulation.

“I am always supportive of sensible changes to shop trading hours which strike the right balance for shoppers, workers and businesses,” he said.

“Voters in March will face a clear choice: (Premier) Steven Marshall and his radical plan for total deregulation of shop trading hours, which will hurt local businesses and local jobs.

“Or a Malinauskas Labor government, which supports sensible changes to shop trading hours, which protect workers’ rights and support local businesses’ ability to compete against the big players.”

The-then Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) South Australian and Northern Territory branch secretary Peter Malinauskas in 2010 outside Woolworths supermarket at Mitcham Square Shopping Centre.

Mr Malinauskas argued that it “says a lot” that Business SA’s policy now was more closely aligned with the ALP’s than that of the Liberals.

Advertiser polling consistently has shown support for extended trading hours. An online survey in May found 75 per cent of more than 2000 respondents supported legislation to allow shops to trade when they wanted.

Mr Marshall in August told parliament that South Australia’s current shop trading laws were “embarrassing”.

“People come over here from interstate, they go out to do some shopping late on a Saturday afternoon – closed, completely and utterly closed,” he said.

Treasurer Rob Lucas, who has spearheaded the government’s push for extended hours, in August said the government’s policy was based on “70 per cent support from families and households” – and that shoppers would continue supporting small, independent retailers even with deregulation.

“The position the government is adopting is strongly supported by punters,” he said.

“The research for individuals says they will continue to support independent retailers in South Australia, because they provide a particular niche in the market.”