Traders support Easter opening

GREATER DANDENONG traders are willing to support a Liberal Party promise to reinstate Easter Sunday trading.
In 2003, the State Government introduced restricted trading on Easter Sunday, allowing for smaller businesses such as milk bars to trade, but forcing larger businesses such as supermarkets to close.
This week, Liberal spokesperson for small and medium enterprises, Bruce Atkinson, said a Liberal Government would ‘repeal Labor’s illogical ban’.
Dandenong Retail Traders’ Association chairman Roy Aspinall said he supported the idea and that an option should be made available for traders as to whether to open or stay shut.
“Not necessarily in Dandenong, but I know in the Melbourne CBD they get so many visitors over Easter and the shops can’t open,” he said.
Mr Aspinall said bans meant people visiting Dandenong for the EasterNats at Sandown raceway, a car enthusiast show drawing thousands of car fans from around the state, would have suffered the same fate, with little or no shops open.
“I don’t think it is logical,” he said. “(The ban) does give an advantage to the small retailer, but, by the same token, it shouldn’t be a hard and fast rule saying if you employ a small number of people, you can open, and if you employ a large number, you can’t.”
Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce president David Carlson said the lifting of a ban would be beneficial for street traders, but would not necessarily offer traders in a shopping mall bound by leasing agreements the choice of remaining shut.