South Australian policy that restricts Boxing Day sales to a handful of locations "makes no sense" and should be overturned to be in line with other states, the state Liberal Party has said.
More than 180,000 bargain hunters were expected to flock to Adelaide's Rundle Mall when it opened at 11:00am on Monday, with shopping also allowed at Glenelg, country areas and the airport.
Opposition Treasury spokesperson Rob Lucas said shopping centres in Adelaide suburbs such as Marion, Noarlunga, Tea Tree Gully and Munno Para should be allowed to open as well.
"Clearly there are families and individuals who would shop in the suburbs and don't go into the city. The parking's too expensive," he said.
"[There's] a whole variety of reasons why they wouldn't travel into the Adelaide CBD for Boxing Day sales, but they would shop in the local suburban shopping centre if they were given the opportunity."
Mr Lucas claimed the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees' Association (SDA) had "too much power" over the Government.
He said the Liberal Party would change the policy if it won the 2018 state election.
"If there are people who want to shop and traders who are open to sell, why shouldn't they be allowed to?" he said.
"It makes no sense at all."
Acting SA Industrial Relations Minister Kyam Maher said the state had the right balance between opening hours over the Christmas and New Year period and time off for workers.
"The public should not be fooled — fully deregulated trading hours would most benefit major retail chains, which want to crush smaller SA-owned competitors, leading to the likely loss of SA jobs," he said.
Changes 'manifestly unfair' for retail workers
SDA SA and Northern Territory branch assistant secretary Josh Peak said retail was the state's largest sector and employed the most people.
"If we start saying that all retail workers need to be working on every public holiday, it's basically taking public holidays away from the biggest sector of the community.
"We think that's manifestly unfair."
He said the Liberal Party's policy meant retails workers across the suburbs would have had to start work at 12:01am on Boxing Day.
"This would rob retail workers of their Christmas Day, because many of them would be required to go to work on December 26," Mr Peak said.
"This is [Opposition Leader] Steven Marshall tipping his head to the big end of town … overwhelmingly, the feedback we get from our members is the most important thing around Christmas and public holidays is time off."
He said union had recognised there was some demand from the community for Boxing Day sales, and that is why shopping was allowed in the CBD between 11:00am and 5:00pm.
The Rundle Mall Management Authority is expecting a 3.7 per cent increase on last year sales with clothes and small electronics tipped to be in high demand.
Business SA Industry and Government Engagement executive director Anthony Penney said allowing suburban trading at this time of year would boost the economy and protect stores from online competition.
"What we're saying is, let business decide when and where they should open, and let's get rid of the bureaucracy and red tape," he said.
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