Trading Hours Activism
In the state of Victoria in the 1980s, fair trading laws limited retailers to trading during certain hours on Saturdays, and not at all on Sundays. Certain types of retailers were exempt from these restructions, such as milk bars and service stations. The name Frank Penhalluriack became synonymous with the term rebel trader, as he consistently ignored these laws, opening his hardware store outside of the legislated times. Melbourne talkback radio host and social commentator Derryn Hinch quipped at the time, "You can get a screw on Sunday but you can’t get a screwdriver.", in reference to the fact that the Victorian government was legalising prostitution at the same time they were enforcing the weekend trading laws with particular attention to hardware stores.
Officers from the department of Fair Trading repeatedly fined Penhalluriack for his breaches of the law, and the whole issue gained considerable local media attention. When Penhalluriack refused to pay, the courts compelled the police to auction his stock to raise funds to pay the fine; the auction was a farce, with grateful shoppers paying many times the market price for the goods auctioned. Eventually he was charged for his refusal to pay half a million dollars in fines associated with his trading hours. His attempt to serve a subpoena on then premier John Cain at a public appearance led to a scuffle with a yelling crowd of about 30 Right to Life demonstrators. Penhalluriack was convicted and spent 19 days in HM Prison Pentridge.
In response to public pressure, the government changed retail trading laws in Victoria, Australia to permit weekend trading. After the introduction of Sunday trading, Penhalluriack's media profile dropped dramatically. Penhalluriack has an ongoing involvement in his local community, including acting as a Director of the Caulfield Park Bendigo Bank.
Penhalluriack continues to flout trading laws, opening his hardware store on Easter Sunday in 2005, under threat of a $10,000 fine. His stance has been quoted as follows:
- To me, shopping hours and trading days have nothing to do with the Government; it is a free enterprise system. The days I want to open and the hours I want to open are between me and my customers.
- "If you've got a burst pipe, what do you do - wait for 20 hours?"
Read more about this topic: Frank Penhalluriack
Famous quotes containing the words trading and/or hours:
“His farm was “grounds,” and not a farm at all;
His house among the local sheds and shanties
Rose like a factor’s at a trading station.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“...here he is, fully alive, and it is hard to picture him fully dead. Death is thirty-three hours away and here we are talking about the brain size of birds and bloodhounds and hunting in the woods. You can only attend to death for so long before the life force sucks you right in again.”
—Helen Prejean (b. 1940)