Chamber backs deregulated trading

The Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry has voted to support the deregulation of retail trading hours in a move that has divided business owners.

Earlier this week, the chamber’s executive committee changed its policy position on retail trading to “reflect the current wishes of its members”.

The review took into account two member forums, the results of four member surveys between 2006-10 and two recent reports on the retail industry in Australia.

The chamber’s previous position was to maintain the status quo of current regulations, which restrict the trading hours of more than 50 retail outlets in Albany, including Australia Post, Coles, Prouds, Rivers and Sanity.

The latest decision was slammed by prominent Albany businessman Paul Lionetti, who claimed the chamber had not adequately consulted its members before changing its policy.

Mr Lionetti, who has been involved in the Albany business community since 1977, said the deregulation of trading hours would give more business to multinational companies and harm small businesses.

“I just cannot understand why those members of the executive are hell-bent on destroying small business, I just cannot understand it,” he said.

“My motion was to leave it on the table and properly consult every member, but it fell on deaf ears.”

City of Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington, who spoke as a business owner, labelled the decision “extraordinary”.

He claimed only a minority ofthe chamber’s 775 members had responded to its surveys and said Albany did not have the customer base to support seven-day trading.

However, chamber chief executive Graham Harvey said the surveys had gone out to every one of the chamber’s members, giving them all ample opportunity to have their say.

“In the last member survey of 2010, only 24 per cent of respondents were not in favour of deregulated trading,” he said.

“I would challenge anybody to read any of these reports and say deregulation is not in the best interest of retailers.

“The reason the chamber is holding this position is because it fundamentally believes it is in the best interest of its members, particularly its retail members.”

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