Media Release

Herbert River Express column

EARLY next year, I will join concerned members of our community in testifying at a Queensland Industrial Relations Commission hearing at Ingham regarding a bid to extend the trading hours of retail giants.

The major supermarket chains are destroying rural areas, and Sunday trading will accentuate the stranglehold they have on our communities.

The policies of ‘marketism’, economic rationalism, will leave our country with only two people to sell to; and only two people to buy our food from.

Price mark-ups only 80 per cent per cent in the good old days... four hundred per cent mark-ups now. Twenty-four-hour trading... you won’t get it with only two shops in town.

Our independent grocery operators, corner stores and other small retail businesses don’t just employ the lion’s share of retail workers – the profits stay in our community.

The support of our local retailers and independent grocers was critical in winning the fight against banana imports.

At Ingham, having locally-owned IGA and convenience stores mean consumers are not forced to travel the greater distance to fulfil their grocery shopping needs on this one day of the week that the big chains are not open.

Indeed, without this custom, our after-hours owner-operator stores would find it difficult, if not impossible, to survive.

The supermarket giants already have more than enough opportunity to make their billion-dollar profits. Do we really want them to have unrestricted access?