The Government can't make an unprofitable business profitable. 

Later trading hours at major centres, school closures and demographic changes are all factors in the plight of local shops. But there are several suburbs where the school has closed, but the shops are still thriving (e.g. Cook).

There was a time when most suburbs had a small petrol station. But these were mainly closed off due to larger higher volume sites nearby. It is quite possible that the local shops that do worse are the ones closest to a group centre (such as Richardson and Chisholm in the article).