Wilkinson Kate: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Wilkinson Kate: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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KATE WILKINSON (National) 
: 
 I am delighted to stand in support of this first reading of the Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill to allow trading in the Wanaka and Tauranga districts on Easter Sunday and Good Friday. The current laws are a dog’s breakfast. Under the existing laws certain shops are exempted from having to stay closed at Easter and Christmas. If they serve food or petrol they can stay open and if they sell souvenirs they can stay open. A pharmacy or a shop in a bus station can stay open and a garden centre can open on Easter Sunday but not otherwise. Furthermore if a shop chooses to open on any of those days it commits an offence and has to pay a fine of $1000. So shops do choose to stay open knowing that the trading figures more than justify the cost of the fine. 
As the chief executive of the Auckland chamber of commerce has stated: “There is no better example of stupid lawmaking and collective political failure to fix bad law than the annual Easter Shopping conundrum.” He continued: “It is stupid to have a law on when shops can open or not open. It is even more stupid to have a law that says some shops can open and others can’t—let the market decide.” We have a wonderful tourism industry in New Zealand yet Queenstown can stay open on Easter Sunday and Good Friday but Wanaka cannot. Taupo is exempt; Rotorua is not. Whilst the bill refers to Wanaka and Tauranga it also allows other towns to choose to tag along and join the schedule of exempted areas. 
This bill is about choice—the freedom to choose if one runs a business in Wanaka to stay open and the freedom to choose to remain closed. If we have personal religious or cultural reasons to keep Easter Day and Good Friday free from commercial activity and free from running our shops or businesses then we can so choose. If we choose not to shop and to have a family day away from shops then we do not have to shop. Nobody is forcing us to shop. Nothing in this bill is compulsory; nothing in this bill is mandatory. 
It has been stated by the Family First Lobby that: “Public holidays are traditions. They create rituals for families not based on shopping but on celebrating together reconnecting and making memories.” I do not disagree with that statement but as the  
Listener 
 reported on Christmas Day that may well be true but at Easter it is not. Family unity is not put at risk if the local supermarket opens on a public holiday. Because of the ridiculous current law 45000 visitors to Auckland last month attended the Rolling Stones concert yet they could not go shopping. They could go to the concert but they could not buy a new outfit to wear to the concert. 
If one objects to working on Easter Sunday or Good Friday so be it. But the irony is that because the current law is ludicrous many shop owners now flout the law. What does that mean? It means that labour inspectors are busy working on that “day of rest” catching all those who choose to remain open. That is the irony of it. Wholesalers can remain open; retailers cannot. Goods can be purchased on the Internet but not from physical shop premises. One can get a haircut on Good Friday but not buy shampoo. One can rent a video or a DVD from a video shop on Good Friday but not buy one. Newspapers are not sold on Good Friday but the newspaper staff are working on the Saturday edition. Shops in Taupo can open; shops in Rotorua cannot. Shops in Queenstown can open; shops in Wanaka cannot. 
Under this bill towns can choose to avail themselves of that exemption. Alternatively they can choose not to. Similarly shop owners can always choose to open. Alternatively they can choose not to open. Workers can choose to work on those days or they can refuse to work. But then who would not want to work with the current Holidays Act regime? 
This issue has been languishing. It is time it was resolved once and for all. It is not a sin to buy goods on Easter Day or Good Friday; neither is it a sin to sell goods on those days.