Mr COX (1:53 PM) —Two Saturdays ago I went to the newsagency in Willunga to buy the Advertiser. There was a sign in the window:

Naturally when I bought my Advertiser I was moved to ask Denise whether, given the proximity of their closing date to 1 July, it had anything to do with the GST. Yes, it did—it was part of the decision to close the shop. They did not want to go through the process of coming to grips with the paperwork, so yesterday they closed the business before the GST came into effect. This is a blow for Willunga, our little country town losing its only newsagency. This ends a long family tradition of selling newspapers. Bruce Pulford's father Ross was the newsagent in Mintaro in 1945 and since then the family had only had one year away from the newsagency business. The Pulford family built the Willunga newsagency business from scratch, doorknocking to find customers for the home delivery service and then getting up at 3 a.m. every day for 23 years to roll papers and do the delivery round. I wish Bruce and Denise luck in whatever they choose to do in the future. It would be interesting to know just how many Australian family businesses have closed this month as people get out ahead of the GST.