Perth’s lord mayor has hit back at the state government over its decision to extend trading hours in a regional West Australian town but not in the city, over claims doing so would be anti-small business.
Premier Roger Cook told those attending a Chamber of Industry and Commerce breakfast on Thursday: “If you support liberalisation of retail trading hours, you are fundamentally anti-small business.
“If you support the full liberalisation of retail trading hours, as the Liberals are doing, they are simply placing all those small businesses in the firing line, in the sights of large businesses, which will seek to crowd them out.”
WA Premier Roger Cook, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas.
Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas, also the Liberal candidate for Churchlands, responded to the comments on Radio 6PR on Friday morning, in light of Albany gaining extended trading hours from February 2025.
Retail stores in the Great Southern town will be able to open from 8am-9pm weekdays, 8am-5pm on Saturdays, 10am-5pm on Sundays, and on public holidays, excluding Christmas Day and Good Friday.
“I understand that the premier doesn’t want to do it across the metropolitan area, and I’ve said that’s fine, but at least let the Perth CBD operate under the same concessions that he’s giving Albany, it makes absolutely no sense that he wouldn’t,” Zempilas said.
“I don’t know how many times we can say this – you know, it’s only giving the business owner the right to open when they want to. You are not held captive.
“Could there be another reason why the government are resisting doing it in the metropolitan area and certainly in the heart of the city, yet in Albany, ‘oh, no worries’?”
He said in about a year, there would be 10,000 extra people living in the heart of the city – 6000 of whom would be students with the new Edith Cowan University campus opening – who would make use of extended hours.
Zempilas also said the current hours made selling Perth as a travel destination harder.
“The bloke that gets off the plane from the direct flight from London, Paris or Rome, checks in down at the Ritz Carlton, 5pm on a Saturday, he’s excited to see the new city, and the concierge says: ‘Oh, sorry, mate. Shops are shut and won’t be open again until midday tomorrow,’” he said.
Cook, during his speech, said this argument was misguided.
“People often say, ‘well what about people who come from Paris to shop?’ Well, for one, people do not go from Paris to shop at Target, but two, the shops are closed in Paris on a Sunday,” he said.