Treasurer Rob Lucas this morning confirmed to InDaily he would give notice to introduce the centrepiece legislation this Thursday, but will not formally table it until the next sitting day on July 3 – putting it outside the 100-day deadline the Government gave itself to bring the contentious bill before parliament.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas declared the delay “a broken promise”, saying the 100-day pledge was “all in writing for everybody to see”.

“I’m not too sure what the state Liberal Party is waiting for… they’ve been banging on about this for 16 years [and] they made an unequivocal promise,” he said.

Lucas’s shop trading bill is set to be the only one of 14 pieces of legislation the new administration pledged to introduce within 100 days of its formal swearing-in – which acting Premier’s Department chief Erma Ranieri yesterday confirmed would fall on June 30.

“Guilty as charged,” he said of the failed deadline.

“If that’s the worst sin of the four-year [term] I’ll fess up to it.”

But he reiterated the delay was prompted by “the complexity of the legislation”, declaring: “We’re proposing to repeal the whole shop trading hours legislation and replace it with a new act.”

If the parliament says we’re not going to fix up the dog’s breakfast of laws… trading hours will have to be policed

Lucas said the new bill had been drafted but was still to be debated in cabinet this week.

“We’re going to try and fix all this dog’s breakfast of a piece of legislation, which has been added to and subtracted from over decades,” he said.

“It’s such a mess… we’re proposing the existing act be replaced, and we construct a new one.”

However, the efforts are expected to be in vain with Labor, the Greens and SA Best lined up against the legislation in the Upper House.

“I’ve been in politics a long time – nothing’s over until it’s over, until the final votes are counted,” Lucas said.

But he suggested the Liberal Government was prepared for rearguard political action in the event of the bill’s defeat.

“Should the parliament ultimately reject the proposed solution, and accept the continuing of the current dog’s breakfast, we’ll happily spend between now and 2022 highlighting problems with the existing legislation and the shoppies’ union’s control over the Labor Party,” he said.

That campaign is likely to be underscored by a clampdown on trading outside the existing laws, after Lucas revealed in April he had ordered SafeWork SA to review current trade practices – with an apparent focus on clarifying the definition of a shop with “a floor area that does not exceed 400 square metres” – stores which are given an exemption under the existing act to trade on public holidays and after 9pm on weekdays.

Lucas said that inquiry was “part of the reason for the delay in drafting” the bill.

“We’ve been clarifying what we can and can’t say in terms of highlighting trading provisions,” he said.

“We’ll be highlighting the current dog’s breakfast of the laws – and whether or not there are some stores, groups and individuals who might not be trading within the letter of the current laws.”

Asked if he believed there were, Lucas said: “There’s no doubt there are – it’s a question of the number.”

“The reality is, if the parliament says we’re not going to fix up the dog’s breakfast of laws, and now we’ve taken legal advice in terms of what’s allowed and what’s not allowed, the trading hours will have to be policed.

“In some cases, to the best extent we can based on legal advice, we’ll be required to enforce the existing legislation.”

Asked if that meant he was gearing up for a war with independent retailers – which as a sector has vocally opposed any deregulation – Lucas said: “We’re gearing up to try and get the legislation through the parliament.”

“If the parliament says ‘no’, we’ll be well prepared for a four-year campaign highlighting the status of the current dog’s breakfast we’ve got, and the fact Peter Malinauskas, the shoppies’ union and others have insisted this remain,” he said.

“And we think there’s very strong support in the broader community for freedom of choice in relation to this particular issue.”

Malinauskas recently suggested his floated compromise of allowing supermarkets to open from 9am instead of the current 11am on Sundays was now off the table, but Lucas says he believes the suggestion was only ever “a brain explosion” by the fledgling Opposition Leader.

“And then the shoppies’ union said ‘you’re not allowed to do that’, and he’s now been pulled into line,” he said.

Lucas has, in any case, scoffed at the mooted compromise but did not reject it entirely today, saying: “Ultimately we’d consider whatever the parliament offer, but that’s not our position at this stage.”

“Our position at this stage is that piecemeal change is not a solution to the problems we’ve had, and it leaves unresolved a whole range of other problems,” he said.

“There are so many fundamental problems we see in the legislation – another band-aid solution makes no significant difference [and] we’re confident there will be huge popular support for greater freedom of choice n terms of trading hours when we put on the record what current problems are.”

Malinauskas also didn’t rule out returning to his compromise position today, saying: “I canvassed what we may be willing to contemplate as a compromise, and Steven Marshall and Rob Lucas not only ruled it out but poured scorn on the proposition.”

“We haven’t retreated – they have to change their position… which they’ve given no indication they’re going to do.”

But the Labor leader did not baulk at a political dogfight on deregulation, saying: “One can only assume the campaign that’s being run by small business has got Steven Marshall and Rob Lucas very concerned about the impact their legislation is going to have.”

“When people become aware of the real consequences this legislation will have on small business, people are rightly concerned about it,” he said.

“Nobody believes a strengthening of the duopoly’s power is a good thing – it’s bad for consumers, bad for business and bad for jobs… we’re very comfortable in making sure we protect the interests of small businesses, consumers and workers -and that’s what we’re going to do.”