Dean Jacqui: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3180] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I move  
That the Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be considered by the Commerce Committee. 
Very shortly after becoming the member of Parliament for Otago I was approached by a group of Wanaka business people who asked whether I could help them. They felt they were in the middle of some kind of ghastly  
Groundhog Day 
 situation where nothing ever changed. They felt they were in a situation where year after year many of them were prosecuted for trading over Easter while just over the hill Queenstown had an exemption under the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 and businesses there could go about their business and trade over Easter quite legally. 
Wanaka is a busy tourist town with two peak seasons—one in summer and one in winter. It attracts visitors from around New Zealand and indeed from right around the world. Easter is an extremely busy time for Wanaka and in particular every second year when the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Air Show and the Race to the Sky events are held. They attract up to 100000 people to the Wanaka district. That influx of people creates a hugh demand for retail services. That demand which is met by Wanaka retailers would be more happily met if there were not an anomaly in the law that sees them prosecuted for trading but not Queenstown. 
Queenstown just over the Crown Range has a general exemption from the restrictions on trading at Easter. I quote the Mayor of Queenstown: “This reflects our position as an international destination and a place where visitors and residents alike can enjoy many activities and events which would otherwise be stifled by greater restrictions.” He added: “We receive no complaints about the flexibility that this offers businesses and the community and it is exercised responsibly by all of the parties involved.” It is worth noting that the Queenstown Lakes District Council supports the efforts of businesses in Wanaka to be granted a similar exemption. 
I seek to rectify this anomaly in the shop trading hours legislation not only on behalf of Wanaka but also for Tauranga Rotorua and other centres with a significant visitor industry. This bill is by no means the first attempt to bring about some change in the Easter shop trading hours legislation but I hope that now in 2006 we can put an end to a situation that is outdated inconsistent and unfair. New Zealand now has a 24-hour 7-day-a-week trading environment providing goods and services in shops in malls and on the Internet. Our overseas visitors expect to be able to shop and it is worth remembering that the tourism industry provides approximately $12 billion of New Zealand’s gross domestic product. 
Our very lifestyles are changing and as workday pressures grow people now need and like to shop on weekends and holidays. Change however is not always easy. I remember back to when Saturday trading first came in—I was just a child mind! There were fears that it was going to mean the end of family life and the end of Saturday kids’ sports. Well neither of those things has happened. People merely take advantage of the increased opportunity to shop at their leisure. They go and watch the kids rugby then go and warm up in the mall on the way home. 
There are many other inconsistencies in the legislation as it stands with some products being allowed to be sold yet others not. That gives rise to the silly situation where the photography shop in Wanaka which sells photo frames must close yet across the road the chemist shop which also sells photo frames is allowed to trade over Easter. When the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act was enacted garages which then sold only automotive products were exempt and allowed to trade. Now 16 years later a garage can sell books stationery magazines gift cards and chocolates—all the things that tourists and locals will buy. The trouble is that those are also the things that a bookshop sells yet bookshops do not have an exemption under the Act to trade over Easter. 
In the 16 years since the last amendment to the shop trading hours legislation I believe we have all moved on and I believe that the time has come to put right the anomalies that currently still exist. The Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill seeks to provide a level playing field for all retailers who may choose to trade over Easter. The bill is all about choice. The bill offers a real choice for retailers. If their district is included on the schedule they can if they choose trade on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Within the bill there is no compulsion to trade. It is a matter for the individual business owner to decide. Retailers will make the decision on whether to open based on whether they see a demand on the costs including costs in staffing and on whether the day’s business will be profitable to them. 
 The bill does not in any way override the provisions of the Employment Relations Act or the Holidays Act. If an employee does not wish to work on Good Friday and/or Easter Sunday that employee cannot be required to work unless he or she has agreed in an employment agreement to do so. Far from disadvantaging workers Wanaka retailers tell me that people are lining up to work over Easter and retailers have absolutely no trouble at all finding staff. It is good for us to remember that a lot of retail workers in tourist towns are young people who are there for the skiing or for the lifestyle and who are only too happy to make a few extra dollars over Easter. We should also remember that many retail workers work part-time and value the extra hours they may get. So we have willing sellers willing workers and we certainly have willing buyers. 
It was interesting to me to read the comments made recently by the spokesman for the Catholic Church in New Zealand that if businesses wanted to open during the weekend the Catholic Church has no particular issue with it. He added that in Rome itself Sunday is a day on which shops are open. To me it comes back to freedom of choice. If we want to trade we should be able to trade. If we want to shop or not that is our choice too. 
I named Wanaka in the schedule to this bill because it is the people of Wanaka whom I represent. Tauranga is also named as its local MP indicated Tauranga’s interest. I did not presume to add other towns to the schedule but I know that the Rotorua Kaikoura and Hastings business communities are keen to be added to the schedule and I am sure there will be others. Should the bill proceed to the Committee stage—and I hope it does—then those areas plus others can be added simply by way of an amendment. 
There are towns in New Zealand that want to trade over Easter; there are other towns that would not thank us for the opportunity. I do not imagine that most retailers in my home town of Oamaru would decide it was desirable to open on Good Friday or Easter Sunday unless there was a large special event in the town that drew thousands of people in because it simply would not be economically viable. But for those towns in New Zealand with a significant visitor industry like Wanaka Rotorua and others Easter trading provides a boost to the income of the town and a service to the thousands of visitors there for the full range of visitor experiences. 
I believe the time has come for us to put right the anomalies in the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act to recognise that tourism is a 365-day-a-year industry and to recognise that tourism is one of New Zealand’s largest contributors to gross domestic product and goods and services tax. Now is the time to let tourist towns with a significant visitor industry go about their business without unfair archaic and unnecessary regulation. I urge members to send this Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill to the select committee.