DESPITE the wild weather and Sir Richard Branson drawing a decent crowd at a function upstairs, over 200 people turned up to listen to three pivotal players in the retail trading hours debate at the Property Council lunch held at the Hyatt last Wednesday.
Given the task to outline their key arguments in 10 minutes were Shop-ping Centre Council of Australia executive director Milton Cockburn, WA Retailers Association CEO Martin Dempsey and Minister for Consumer and Employment Protection John Kobelke.
While the Property Council of Australia clearly supports the deregulation of trading hours, the Property Council of WA membership comprises owners and man-agers of both small and large retail property and opinions on the appropriateness of deregulation are divided.
Mr Cockburn spoke first and presented a well-polished and comprehensive argument for retail deregulation, which was to be expected since he has spent the past two years lobbying the WA Government for retail deregulation.
Since the National Competition Council brought the issue to a head, the SCCA representative, which represents organisations such as Westfield Holdings, Centro Properties and AMP Henderson Global Investors, has regularly criss-crossed the nation.
Mr Cockburn stressed that trading hours deregulation was not a bold social experiment and that around 80 per cent of Australia’s population now enjoyed deregulated trading hours.
He said a report that SCCA commissioned from Access Economics examined the effect of deregulation in other Statesand revealed there was no evidence of adverse retail price or unemployment effects from retail trading hours deregulation and in fact there was some evidence of benefits.
Mr Cockburn said the issue of deregulation would not go away and consumer pressure and social change meant the issue of retail deregulation would always be on the agenda until the hours were changed.
Speaking for those against further retail deregulation, Mr Dempsey failed to bring the same passion or conviction to the debate and presented such a hazy argument that during question time a Westfield Holdings representative asked him ‘what exactly was his argument against retail deregulation.’
Mr Dempsey said there are two important considerations to take into account, one being the WA Labor Party had clearly stated it would retain the existing trading hours and there was evidence that deregulating trading hours gave greater market dominance to the large chains and less choice to consumers.
“We don’t believe that the case has been made to deregulate WA’s trading hours,” Mr Dempsey said.
“No-one can stop change but change should be well understood and well managed.”
As the final speaker Mr Kobelke was at pains to explain away the forcing of the Government’s hand in the retail hours issue.
“The Government does not have a hidden agenda … there is no predetermined position,” he said.
Mr Kobelke said the retail trading hours review has received 1,300 submissions and the State Government was developing a further position on the issue.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet is currently compiling an options paper to present to a meeting of 30 key stakeholders on May 29.
Mr Kobelke said some change in WA’s retail hours was inevitable and the key stakeholders’ meeting would help clarify the potential effects of retail deregulation.