By Amy Looker
Many NSW retail liquor stores were prevented from trading on Easter Sunday, following a decision handed down by the Supreme Court late last Thursday afternoon (April 1).
The ruling was sought by the LSA NSW to clarify a re-interpretation of the NSW Shop Trading Act by the NSW Office of Industrial Relations, which saw many NSW liquor stores forced to close on Easter Sunday and Boxing Day.
The Liquor Stores Association of NSW (LSA NSW) co-ordinated the case on behalf of its members after issuing a summons to seek declaratory orders before Easter Sunday.
LSA NSW originally sought help from the NSW Government a year ago today, but failed to get clarification from the government before Boxing Day last year, which resulted in an estimated $3 million lost sales and up to 2500 lost days of employment.
LSA NSW CEO, Terry Mott, said he was disappointed with the outcome.
“The two days that we were most concerned about were Easter Sunday and Boxing Day. Fundamentally, we were concerned that the interpretation by the Office of Industrial Relations was inappropriate which is why we took on the Supreme Court challenge. The court decided in favour of the government and so our case was dismissed,” he said.
“We had worked with the NSW Government since the 7th of April last year – but with no satisfactory result. We didn’t undertake this lightly, however we had no where else to go.”
The outcome of the decision will see trading conditions removed that have previously been in place for liquor stores for approximately 40 years.