The Productivity Commission’s report on online retailing, released today, finds the $1,000 GST threshold is only a minor issue and the bigger issues are over-regulation in industrial relations and retail trading hours. The Commission identifies Queensland, SA and WA as having the most restrictive trading hours, and notes there is nothing to fear from deregulation:

The experience with deregulated trading hours is that many
retailers do not trade for more hours in total than prior to deregulation. Instead they open at times when consumers are most likely to want to shop for the goods they sell. This means that many retailers, for example, remain closed on traditional public holidays such as Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day.

In fact, retail trading hours deregulation is essential for the future prosperity of the retail sector:

In today’s more competitive retail trading environment, where consumers have greater access to goods from all over the world and can order those goods any time of day, there is a greater imperative for retailers to have the ability to respond to
changing consumer tastes and preferences.

The deregulation of retail trading hours in all states should be progressed.

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, which is required to rule on a current dispute regarding retail trading hours in Bundaberg (David and Goliath in seven-day war), should pay close attention to the Commission’s report.