SPARS Supermarket owner Jose Rivas was told in a Sunday trading commission that 350,000 visitors toured the Australian Outback within the last four years, which includes Mount Isa.
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Eleven-thousand international tourists stayed the night in Mount Isa from 2009 to 2012, a figure not insignificant according to the National Retail Association senior industrial advocate.
Mr Rivas was surprised at the large number of recorded tourists because council-owned tourism attractions like Outback at the Isa and Buchanan Park were recorded as not making a profit.
“Mount Isa City Council reckoned [the] buildings have cost many millions of dollars a year,” Mr Rivas said.
Mr Rivas said his two supermarkets in Sunset and Turanga Shopping Centre would close if his stores had to compete with two Woolworths stores and a Coles on Sunday.
His stores employed 31 people, Mr Rivas said.
Mr Rivas said 25 per cent of his profit was made on Sundays when Woolworths and Coles were not open.
He said half of this profit would be lost if he competed with them on a Sunday.
NRA’s senior industrial advocate Jacques Franken said recent Queensland Treasury and Trade statistics showed Mount Isa’s population was growing 1.6%.
He said Coles had been open in Mount Isa for 40 years – longer than all witnesses representing small businesses at the commission.
A Queensland University of Technology survey showed 71 per cent of the community were in favour of Sunday trading, Mr Franken said.
72 per cent would continue supporting small businesses, he said.
He said a recently released Productivity Commission report showed that small businesses were not negatively impacted when near larger businesses.
Mr Franken proved through questioning of witnesses that shoes and clothing could not be bought in Mount Isa on a Sunday.
He also referred to a Commerce North West vote among members which supported Sunday trading 16-13.
Peta MacRae, owner of MacRae News, said she voted for Sunday trading in the Commerce North West vote.
But she misunderstood the wording of the question and thought “yes” to Sunday trading meant for her own store.
Mrs MacRae said the Turanga Shopping Centre newsagency would be affected by Sunday trading if SPARS Supermarket closed.
The newsagency recently lost trade in the closure of Civic Video – which drew people to the centre – and would lose more when contractors finished work at the Diamantina Power Station, Mrs MacRae believed.
