Policy & Advocacy

What we do

The National Retail Association Policy Team exists to help retail businesses succeed and grow within an ever-changing regulatory environment.

Our team works with a wide range of industry stakeholders – retailers, government, law enforcement, regulatory bodies, shopping centres, community groups, supporting associations and many more – to develop industry-wide policy platforms or positions on issues of importance to the Australian retail sector.

We work with all retailers across the retail and foodservice industry – regardless of size, category or business model – from the largest department chains to family-run pizza shops. Similar issues affect all retailers every day – such as retail crime, product safety and environmental legislation – and we all benefit from sharing intelligence and real-world experience.

We work actively with governments at international, federal, state and local levels to ensure the interests and needs of the Australian retail and services sectors are protected and promoted. Rather than running from inevitable regulatory change, we provide a bridge between retailers and government – facilitating the exchange of ideas and information which ultimately leads to more informed, commercially-aware outcomes for all parties.

We place real-world insight above all else, so we actively engage with retailers in stores, strip precincts and shopping centres.

We tackle the issues you can’t tackle alone.

Contact the Policy team

Recent activity

Submission: ACT Single-Use Plastics Round 2

24/01/2022

The NRA supports the ACT Government’s proposal to ban single-use plastic straws, cotton bud sticks and fragmentable additives, however banning fruit and vegetable produce bags is premature given ACT lacks composting collection, alternatives are limited, hygiene concerns are at a high, and the cost to ACT citizens and farmers could be significant.  

Update: QLD Waste Levy increase in effect

01/01/2021

To assist businesses in dealing with the financial impacts of COVID-19, the Queensland Government deferred the increase of waste levy rates originally scheduled to take effect from 1 July 2020. A six month deferral to 1 January 2021 was approved. For further information about the waste levy, please visit the Queensland Government website at www.qld.gov.au/wastedisposallevy.  

2020-21 Christmas & New Year Trading Hours

01/12/2020

The National Retail Association has compiled a factsheet outlining Christmas and New Years trading hours for 2020-21.

Extended Trade: Queen’s Birthday (WA)

28/09/2020

The Western Australia Government has approved extended trading hours for general retail stores in Perth metropolitan area for the Queen’s Birthday public holiday on Monday 28 September 2020. These stores will be allowed to open from 8am to 6pm. Normal trading hours for these public holidays are 11am to 5pm. Retailers holding small shop certificates […]

Engaging Real Retailers

Contact the Policy team at: policy@nra.net.au

David Stout

David Stout

Director Policy National Retail Association
David is a highly-respected senior executive across a wide range of retail sectors including corporate affairs, operations, customer insights, finance, procurement, risk and regulation, stakeholder engagement, community and supply chain.  He is favourably regarded as a bipartisan and ethical operative in best practice across retail and corporate industry, regional and urban councils, local and state governments, and is currently involved in multiple advisory groups / committees.
Ebony Johnson

Ebony Johnson

Project Manager, Policy National Retail Association
As Project Manager in the Policy team, Ebony brings a strong background across the retail, textile, and hospitality sectors in project management, stakeholder relations, marketing and communications. Ebony provides project management expertise to multiple projects, including sustainability, product safety, retail crime and committees.
Lily Charlton

Lily Charlton

Senior Policy Officer National Retail Association
Lily Charlton is an experienced policy officer who provides a high level of professionalism and organisation. Lily’s remit oversees the delivery of policy submissions to government, industry committees, industrial commission trading hour applications and supporting government relations. Lily ensures the policy team consistently meets or exceeds key deliverables on a range of NRA projects across sustainability, retail crime, product safety and trading hours.
Lauren McGinty

Lauren McGinty

Policy Officer National Retail Association
Lauren provides administrative support to the policy department by ensuring data integrity and assisting the team with the strategic integration of project data to achieve high level objectives.
Bonnie Marshall

Bonnie Marshall

Policy Officer National Retail Association
Before joining the team, Bonnie served 12 years in the Australian Federal Parliament as a Chief of Staff, campaign lead, policy adviser and media and communications manager. She has provided advice on key legislative areas including advanced manufacturing, energy policy, STEM and education, international relations, regional job creation, agriculture and dairy and social issues such as homelessness and women's safety. Currently, alongside her invaluable work for the NRA Bonnie is undertaking a Bachelor of Science, mentoring with Country to Canberra and volunteering with Raise Foundation and Zoe's Organisation.
Matt Powers

Matt Powers

Policy Officer National Retail Association
As a specialist in retail, business and operations management, Matt is passionate about fostering centre relationships and engaging in solutions to represent the interests of retailers through excellent communication skills, working collaboratively with the dynamic needs of each business and coordinating best match engagement officers to match these requirements.
Dr Alan Barclay

Dr Alan Barclay

Health and Nutrition Advisor National Retail Association
Dr Alan Barclay, the National Retail Association Health and Nutrition Advisor, is an invaluable part of the Policy team and provides evidence-based advocacy in the nutrition space.
Barbara Kerlen

Barbara Kerlen

Product Safety Committee Chairperson National Retail Association
Involved in standards development since 2015, Barbara has made a mark as a dedicated and motivated committee member. Barbara is a participating member on a range of committees, including being chairperson of the National Retail Product Safety Committee, the industry working group on button battery safety and sitting on the ISO COPOLCO (Consumer Policy Committee) mirror committee, which focuses on the most effective areas for consumer participation in standards.
Gail Greatorex

Gail Greatorex

Advisor National Retail Association
As a specialist product safety advisor, Gail works with our Technical Standards Committee on policy and advocacy. Gail has extensive experience in consumer product safety, as a consultant and with the ACCC, and runs her own business Product Safety Solutions in Melbourne.