Treasurer Rob Lucas claims ‘knockout’ blow as Commonwealth Bank report finds huge increase in trading from Boxing Day reform

Spending in the suburbs almost tripled during a historic Boxing Day trading trial last year, according to a new report which Treasurer Rob Lucas claims is a “knockout” blow in the brawl over reform.

• Boxing Day 2018: How the new trading hours went down

Spending in the suburbs almost tripled during a historic Boxing Day trading trial last year, according to a new report that the State Government claims has delivered a “knockout” blow in the long-running political brawl over reform.

Treasurer Rob Lucas used a loophole in the state’s complicated and restrictive shop trading laws to expand Boxing Day trading beyond the CBD into the suburbs for the first time.

This was despite his wider deregulation plan being blocked in Parliament. Mr Lucas has seized on a new Government-commissioned report into the trial, from Commonwealth Bank, as proof the change sparked a huge overall rise in trade. He’s also strongly hinted the controversial experiment will be repeated this year.

“Having now received this response, it’s certainly a very powerful argument,” Mr Lucas, pictured, said. “We’ll consider it. It makes it much more likely than unlikely.”

Customers packed suburban shopping centres including Burnside Village on Boxing Day last year. Picture: AAP / Morgan Sette

Commonwealth Bank analysed the details of more than 230,000 Boxing Day transactions over 2017 and 2018, including where customers came from and how much they spent. The full report is being withheld on commercial-in-confidence grounds, but Mr Lucas has released key findings which include that interstate and international visitors helped lead a 192 per cent rise in suburban spending on Boxing Day 2018 when compared to 2017.

The CBD, which previously held the exclusive right to Boxing Day trading, suffered a 4.8 per cent drop in revenue despite receiving more customers and transactions. However, those city losses were dwarfed by a rise in suburban trading that was 42 times larger.

The Government says weaker turnover for Adelaide’s CBD last year was consistent with softer retail spending also recorded interstate.

Mr Lucas said the SA results of the report had “blown out of the water” claims from his opponents that more access to trading would simply spread spending around thinly.

“The Shoppies’ Union and (Opposition Leader Peter) Malinauskas and co have said that all it would do is move the dollars from the city to the suburbs,” he said. “Well, that’s clearly not the case. What it does show, as most of us thought it would, is that people got out and did a bit of shopping and spending on Boxing Day in the suburbs, when they wouldn’t have otherwise been doing anything.”

The CBD, which previously held the exclusive right to Boxing Day trading, suffered a 4.8 per cent drop in revenue despite receiving more customers and transactions. Picture: AAP / Morgan Sette

The report finds suburban Boxing Day spending rose 209 per cent for Adelaide residents, 95 per cent for interstate visitors and 182 per cent for people who live in regional SA. The Government used exemption powers to also expand Easter Monday trade this year.

A broader Commonwealth Bank analysis of the holiday trading period including November and December also showed an overall rise in shopping, the Government says.

Upper House Opposition Leader Kyam Maher said any increased profits from more trading hours would go to the top end of town, as workers forfeited their family time.

“Big national and multinational companies are the biggest winners from the deregulation of shop trading hours,” he said on Sunday.

“The eleven public holidays a year give SA small businesses and supermarkets an advantage, and the money stays in SA.

“The real point is who’s making the profits, and what the return is to the state.”

Mr Maher said small businesses created more jobs for every dollar spent in their stores. “The local IGAs and Foodlands also have a much higher proportion of SA products than their rivals, which goes on to create even more jobs in SA,” he said.

Cartoonist Jos Valdman's take on Treasurer Rob Lucas claiming a "knockout" win in Boxing Day trading.

Under current law, small shops are mostly allowed to open when they wish but those with floor spaces larger than 400sq m are banned from trading on public holidays. Big shops also have restrictions on Sunday mornings and weekend evenings.

The Upper House crossbench was unanimous in its rejection of the deregulation plan last year, and the formal debate is unlikely to return in this Parliament. However, the issue of further shop trading deregulation is set to remain a key point of difference at the next state election in 2022.

A UniSA Institute for Choice poll taken before last year’s state election found 73.6 per cent support to change SA’s shop laws. That was reinforced by the Sunday Mail Your Say, SA survey in October that found 62 per cent backing for looser trading regulations.