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Qld pushes for longer retail trading hours

Country Road is calling it a day until the coronavirus epidemic eases up.

Country Road is calling it a day until the coronavirus epidemic eases up. Photo: Getty

Retailers want shops in Queensland’s southeast to be able to trade for 14 hours a day, six days a week, ending what they call the shambles of shopping time zones.

By harmonising hours, the National Retail Association says more than 1000 jobs could be created, adding $111 million to the Queensland economy.

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The NRA will lodge its application with the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on Friday, arguing a shambolic patchwork of trading hours zones in the southeast is holding the state back.

It says trading hours should be standardised across the region, which covers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan and the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

Under the plan, retailers in the region would be allowed to trade from 7am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday. There would be no changes to Sunday or public holiday trading hours or areas outside the southeast.

Smaller shops, and those already exempt from the rules, would also not be affected under the NRA plan, and no stores would be forced to open.

The association’s chief executive Trevor Evans says it’s absurd that there are now 10 separate trading hours time zones between Noosa in the north and Coolangatta in the south, and west to Ipswich.

“This does not represent any radical shift in the balance currently struck by the trading hours rules,” he said in a statement.

“But it will get us as close as is possible to having one consistent set of rules again.”

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