A bid to standardise trading hours across south-east Queensland will cost jobs, an industrial relations commission has heard.

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission began hearing an application by the National Retail Association (NRA) to "harmonise" retail hours in the region today.

CEO Trevor Evans said the current trading hours were put in place 20 years ago and were out of step in an age of modern retailing solutions and online shopping.

"At the moment it's split up into somewhere between 15 to 20 different zones, all with different rules, that's a nightmare and very confusing for both customers and retailers," he said outside court in Brisbane.

"So our hope is to get as close as we can back to one set of rules for south-east Queensland."

The NRA wants stores to be allowed to open from 7:00am to 9:00pm from Monday to Saturday across the region with the exception of Brisbane City, the Gold Coast entertainment precinct and the Fortitude Valley and Hamilton north shore.

Mr Evans said it would create jobs and increase consumer certainty, and the impact on independent retailers would be minimal.

"While there are one or two small businesses that would see these rules as a competitive advantage; i.e. they're forcing their competitors to close and their customers to come to them," he said.

"The fact is that this is about much more than just groceries.

"These laws impact all the tenants of shopping centres and shopping strips which are forced to close as soon as the larger stores and the anchor tenants are forced to shut."

Queensland's independent retailers at risk: MGA

The move will cost jobs, independent and small business representatives say.

Master Grocers Australia (MGA) represents 485 independent retailers in Queensland who say their businesses will be at risk if the action is successful.

MGA advocate Colin Dorber said the move would be damaging to independent retailers and their staff.

"The granting of this application hurts independent retailers it forces husbands and wives for example to terminate staff and then start working 60-70 hours a week to survive," he said.

"It takes employment out of smaller independent stores and based on the evidence the NRA are giving, won't necessarily create new jobs for people in Coles and Woolworths.

"The bottom line is it really hurts and it's not necessary.

"There's only a limited pie and Coles and Woolworths want that pie to be all theirs."

The Commission also heard from Professor Joe Branigan, the co-author of a report into the economic impacts of deregulating retail trading hours in Queensland.

His report estimated that up to 2,000 jobs could be created if deregulation was brought in across the state.

Mr Dorber questioned the survey method and details of the report findings throughout the afternoon.

The matter is set down for four weeks.

This article was sourced directly from the ABC News website here and was written by Kathy McLeish.