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Big retailers renew calls for an overhaul of Perth’s shopping hours

Some of Australia’s biggest retailers have blasted the State Government’s refusal to modernise Perth’s shopping hours, saying businesses are drowning in regulation and battling international behemoths. Wesfarmers, Coles, Woolworths, Harvey Norman and shopping centre giant Vicinity Centres have renewed calls for an overhaul of local restrictive trading hours that mean major shops must hold off opening on Sundays until 11am — despite impatient shoppers queuing at their doors — and must close at 5pm. Premier Roger Cook has been unyielding on the issue, insisting shops were open long enough and regulated hours were needed to shield small businesses from corporate giants, despite the rise of 24-hour online shopping. But experts argue this type of protectionism isn’t warranted and the government shouldn’t be involved. Rob Scott, managing director of Wesfarmers — which owns Kmart, Bunnings, Priceline and Officeworks — said the people most disadvantaged by Perth’s archaic trading hours were local customers and team members. “The people that benefit are a lot of east coast retailers that send their online deliveries to WA and a lot of pure-online retailers,” he told The West Australian. “As a retailer and a West Australian, it really irks me when a household can receive an online delivery on the weekend when our shops are shut. “Many of our teams would love to be able to work on a Sunday morning to get the extra hours, many people like shopping on a Sunday morning, but we’re not allowed to (open).” A State Government spokesman this week said it had no plans to change trading hours. Trading hours in Perth are set by the Government and determined by councils in the regions. The weekend restrictions — 8am to 5pm on Saturdays — have repeatedly meant WA’s trading hours are ranked the worst in the country. Adding to the confusion, Wesfarmers-owned Bunnings and other specialty shops trade under special retail regulations that allow them to open between 6am and 11.30pm — but restrict what they can sell. Small retail shops can trade 24 hours, but few do. Since winning Government in 2017, Labor has faced calls from shoppers, business groups, as well as business leaders for Perth’s old-fashioned shopping laws to be relaxed. In a 2005 referendum, about 60 per cent of West Australians voted against Sunday trading. Nonetheless, hours were extended in 2012. Big retailers now want further deregulation of the laws, arguing it would provide more convenience for shoppers and create more employment opportunities. Retail is the State’s fourth-biggest employing sector. Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre director Alan Duncan said trading hours should be a commercial decision, rather than “being forced by the hand of government”. In deciding last year to sell its full range of products, Bunnings was forced to cut the trading hours of its Bayswater and Cannington warehouses. Quizzed at the time, Mr Cook rejected claims from Mr Scott that government-mandated trading hours put WA businesses at a disadvantage. Mr Cook claimed Bunnings only wanted relaxed trading hours to be able to sell more. But asked this week if it was a bad thing that Wesfarmers — a WA company and one of the country’s biggest private employers — wanted to do more business, Mr Cook did not directly answer. “Discussion around changes to trading hours should focus on the impact on retail workers and small business owners who would face greater uncertainty by a permanent extension in trading hours for larger businesses,” a spokesman said, pointing to its efforts aimed at protecting staff — including tougher penalties for assaults on retail workers. Coles chief executive Leah Weckert said additional trading hours would be valuable so “WA customers can shop with us when they find it convenient”. “At a time when you’ve got online shopping already available, restricting trading hours for bricks-and-mortar shopping is really limiting customers’ convenience,” she told The West Australian. “We certainly would welcome any reforms that address that anomaly. “We do have a lot of customers that tell us that they would like us to be open longer, particularly on Sundays, when we can actually have lines around the front of the store before we open because people are so keen to get in and we would love to provide those additional employment opportunities that would create to our team.” The retail sector employs nearly 150,000 people in WA. Woolworths WA supermarket operations director Lisa Rout said it had long supported the extension of Sunday trading hours in Perth. “Every Sunday, customers queue out the front waiting for our stores to open. The number of customers combined with shortened opening hours creates avoidable congestion and poorer experiences for our customers and team,” she said. “We believe locals should have greater flexibility to shop for essential food and groceries when it suits them, which will lead to more hours becoming available for our team members to work in store.” Woolworths opened a supermarket at Perth Airport in 2023 that opens from 6am to 10pm on weekends. It’s able to bypass State rules because the airport land is owned by the Commonwealth. It’s understood customers drive from across the metro area to shop at the airport supermarket. Harvey Norman chair Gerry Harvey said Perth was behind the eight ball when it comes to shopping hours. “Why do governments want to get themselves involved (with) when you can open and close a shop, just let people open and close whenever they like. What’s it got to do with government?,” he said. Mr Harvey campaigned for about 15 years before then-premier Colin Barnett allowed retail shops across Perth to open at all on Sundays. “We took all this time (to allow Sunday trading) and now . . . we’ve still got a problem in WA,” he said. Perth’s arcane Sunday trading rules for major supermarkets and retailers are in stark contrast to those governing the independents. Several IGAs as well as the majority of Spudshed stores open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while most Farmer Jack’s shops open until 10pm everyday. Meanwhile, liquor stores are also allowed to trade from 10am to 10pm on Sundays, meaning shoppers can grab a bottle of booze before they can buy bread and milk. Shoppers in the regions also get better trading hours, with supermarkets open as late as 9pm on the weekends. “There are some really unusual anomalies to (Perth’s trading hours),” Professor Duncan said. “This is where one needs to critically examine the regulations: is it unevenly applied, is it creating anomalies?” Powerful union the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association’s long-standing opposition to more shopping hours has had a big bearing on the state-of-play in Perth. The Labor-aligned union’s WA secretary Ben Harris argued there was a significant harm to work-life balance of retail workers when the span of trading hours was extended. “Retail workers have not benefited either from previous extensions to retail trading hours in Perth,” he said. “Instead, they are spread more thinly, and customers are often forced to scan their own items because they don’t have a staffed checkout open.” Asked if employees were worse off in regional communities with extended trading hours, Mr Harris said he was aware certain stores have higher staff turnover. “Low staffing levels also create risks for retail crime. Even the Australian Retail Council says retail crime is linked to customer violence,” he said. The State Government in July described WA as the best place to work, do business and visit on the international stage — a position big retailers have taken exception to. Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief economist Daniel Kiely said removing the rules would “send a further signal that (Mr Cook) is pro-business”. “(We need to) signal to tourists and international students coming from Asian economies that this is a lively, vibrant city and one where you can shop and do business at various times during the day,” he said. Dr Kiely said “it’s not for the government to decide who needs protection and for businesses to be protected in this space”. “The likes of Amazon can open 24/7 and so whether we like it or not, small businesses are already in competition,” he said, adding regulation needed to move in-line with the modern world. But Master Grocers Australia, the national peak body representing independent supermarkets and liquor stores, disagreed. “Deregulating trading hours so Coles and Woolworths undermine the small benefits that smaller stores have is a greater threat than online shopping,” chief executive Martin Stirling said. He pointed to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report in 2025 that confirmed Australia’s supermarket sector was highly concentrated with an oligopoly structure, dominated by Coles and Woolworths. “That is not something that is going to change anytime soon and it’s important to make sure that entrenchment doesn’t increase any further,” Mr Stirling said, adding while some independents have been successful in expanding, they were still “nowhere near in size and a match to the major supermarkets”. Mr Stirling rubbished claims that retailers were over-regulated. “(Regulated trading hours are) not additional red tape, it’s making sure that (small businesses) can still stay in the market,” he said. Vicinity — which owns Morley Galleria, Lakeside Joondalup and Perth DFO — said Perth’s restrictive trading hours were a “frustration for ourselves, it’s a frustration for national retailers and it suits a very, very small lobbyist component of local retailers in Perth”. “There should be national shopping centre hours. Perth is a cosmopolitan city and it should be respected in the same light,” chief Peter Huddle said. Professor Duncan cautioned against over-emphasising the economic benefits of having extended trading hours., saying “there’ll be some redistribution of existing spending”. Australian Retail Council boss Chris Rodwell described WA’s shopping hours as a “gift that keeps giving for the ultra-cheap offshore platforms like Temu and Shein”. “It’s beyond perverse that we give West Australians the right to shop at an ultra-cheap platform whenever they want, but they can’t support their local retailer,” he said. “The fact is that most people can and do shop online, around the clock. That’s part of the reason why every other mainland capital allows general retailers to open earlier on Sundays.” Dr Kiely said South Australian retailers have reported “significant increase” in trade since the State government there introduced 9am Sunday opening in 2022. Mr Stirling said MGA had seen greater concentration of market share in States that have deregulated trading hours. “There’s a reason why WA has such a vibrant economy and such a great competitive landscape for independent retailers,” he said.

exclusiveBig retailers renew calls for an overhaul of Perth’s shopping hours

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Big retailers renew calls for an overhaul of Perth’s shopping hours