WA liquor laws have cost a small business operator “ridiculous amounts of money” in order to trade on Sundays and compete with larger liquor stores owned by the supermarket giants.
Independent store Cape Cellars owner Rob Zahtila submitted an application in 2011 to the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor to permanently trade on Sundays.
The department deferred the application and when it was finally assessed, the application was rejected because Dan Murphy’s had opened in Busselton and traded on Sundays.
When Mr Zahtila first submitted the application Dan Murphy’s was not in town. He appealed the application which was eventually approved at a cost of $50,000 to his business.
“What they are effectively doing is protecting hotel licenses from competition, but in this case you are talking about a company – Woolworths – which sells 50 per cent of all take home liquor in Australia,” he said.
“We have not applied for an ongoing extended trading permit in Dunsborough, primarily because of what I went through for the Busselton store.
“In many ways you are prohibited from competing unless you go through this expensive red tape which is time consuming.
“If the town is big enough for multinationals, surely it is big enough for licenses to compete and trade on Sundays. Bunbury is another example, same thing.
“It is anti-competitive, they have created this law which is protecting in many cases these big players rather than protecting small businesses.”
Racing and Gaming Minister Paul Papalia said while there were hurdles in the law to allow a change to Sunday trading in regional areas, these processes were not cumbersome.
“This was demonstrated over the recent Christmas and New Year period, when the director of liquor licensing permitted liquor outlets to trade,” he said.
“The issue of Sunday trading will be considered by this Government with greater scrutiny before a fundamental change is made, and the issue of equity will be considered as part of this.
“Under the changes proposed to the Liquor Control Act 1988, this Government is carefully considering the disadvantages faced by small business, the growth and promotion of tourism and ensuring that existing, established businesses are supported.”
Vasse MP Libby Mettam said the current liquor laws were a bugbear for liquor stores in regional WA and the state government’s reforms did not go far enough for regional businesses. Under the current law, liquor stores in the metro area are able to trade on Sundays.
“There is a strong case for establishing an ongoing extended trading permit system that would help reduce the amount of red tape for both businesses and government. Small businesses have spoken about their frustration and said the system favours big business.”