Bid for shake-up of opening hours at hardware stores, car yards
BUNNINGS would open from 6am on weekends and car yards would be allowed to operate on Sundays under a plan being considered by a key panel examining Queensland’s outdated trading hours.
The State Government’s trading hours review group, chaired by former minister-turned QUT academic John Mickel, is considering recommending a major shake-up of Queensland’s rules.
Mr Mickel said he was seeking submissions from the public about whether larger, non-exempt hardware stores should be allowed to open from 6am on Sundays, as they do on weekdays. Currently, they cannot do so until 9am in the southeast and 8.30am in the rest of Queensland.
“The further north you get, the more people say ‘by the time we get our job set up and all that, it means we’re getting the job done in the heat of the day. What we’d prefer is if Bunnings could open early, the same as they do on Monday to Friday’,” Mr Mickel said.
“They don’t have to open later on a Sunday, but earlier. That would enable the home handyman, the lady who wants to do the gardening or be a handywoman to do that, and to do that at a time of day when they’re up.”
The independent review group – which includes the National Retail Association, the Master Grocers Association, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and various unions – also wants to examine whether Queenslanders should be allowed to buy cars on a Sunday.
“You can buy a boat on a Sunday but you can’t buy the car to tow it,” Mr Mickel said. “But you can buy car parts. So potentially you could buy enough parts to build a car, so long as you didn’t build it in a car lot and drive it out of a car dealership.”
The QUT academic described trading hours as a “red tape issue” and said allowing the sale of vehicles on a Sunday would make it significantly easier for regional towns to host car and caravan shows.
To make a submission, email tradinghoursreview@justice.qld.gov.au by November 14.