INCREASINGLY busy supermarkets has triggered an online petition urging for Sunday trading at Coles and Woolworths in Mount Isa.
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Local Brett Peterson said that shopping had become “absolute mayhem” on Saturdays since the closure of the Pioneer Woolworths store in June.
It meant that Coles and the CBD Woolworths had absorbed the shoppers that used the third store instead, Mr Peterson said.
“I am a resident who wants to be able to shop when they want to and not be told by politicians...when I can shop,” Mr Peterson said.
“KAP (Katter’s Australian Party) represents Mount Isa at the end of the day and that’s what’s got to be remembered.”
Seven day trading was discussed during the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission hearing held in Mount Isa in 2014.
The commission ruled there was not enough evidence of the benefits that seven day trading had on the community.
State MP Rob Katter acknowledged largest stores had become busy on Saturdays but that the solution should not be Sunday trading. “On the eastern side of town, let’s attract an IGA or a SPAR. The answer does not have to come from Coles and Woolworths,” he said.
“The issue has never been driven by local demand, it’s always driven by supermarket duopoly.”
Mr Katter said the largest stores would use Sunday trading to stamp out the smaller competition.
Mount Isa mayor Joyce McCulloch said “council have not really discussed or formed a view on it” when asked if it had a stance.
The commission was held in the city council’s previous term. The council, which included Mr Peterson as deputy, opted to formerly supply no official position.
Commerce North West’s president Travis Crowther said the chamber had not discussed the issue since the commission in 2014.
“People’s views could have changed either way so I could not comment on whether members are for or against it,” Mr Crowther said.
The online petition can be found by clicking here.