Brown Peter: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brown Peter: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 February 2007. Volume:637;Page:7603. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 I am always a little bit apprehensive following the Hon Mark Gosche. I would like to say he is a friend of mine but he really does put some passion into issues that he is concerned about. I know that this is an issue he is concerned about but in a nutshell he is wrong. Let be more correct: he has overstated the case. If families became dysfunctional because shops were open on a Sunday—particularly on Easter Sunday—we would have more dysfunctional families in Taupo than anywhere else because shops in Taupo are allowed to open on Easter Sunday. That is the fact of the matter. Another fact of the matter is that the Easter trading rules are in a mess. 
New Zealand First is pleased with Jacqui Dean for bringing the Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill to the House but we thought she took it a step too far. Having said that we are pleased with it—we supported it at the first reading—we say that we are not going to support it any further because in the pipeline following this bill is a better bill: Steve Chadwick’s Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill. It is superior. 
Bob Clarkson 
: Oh come on! 
PETER BROWN 
: The National Party wants a little bit of success. I am sure Jacqui Dean understands our position. We think that Jacqui Dean took the bill a step too far by providing for the opening of shops on Good Friday. New Zealand First said so when the bill was introduced. If this were the only bill that addressed the issue to choose from we would have supported it going to the Committee stage and sought to make amendments. But we are not prepared to do that now because the Steve Chadwick bill is almost a carbon copy of a bill that the Rt Hon Winston Peters tried to get through the House on two earlier attempts. So we are very very pleased to support the Steve Chadwick bill. 
I would like to address one or two issues that have been raised. I was very interested when Dr Cullen in acknowledging that Easter Sunday was not a public holiday said that if one of these bills were passed then in the fullness of time he would not be averse to looking at Easter Sunday becoming a public holiday. Let me say here and now that I am almost certain New Zealand First would look very positively at something along those lines. I cannot speak categorically because we have not discussed it formally but I know there would be some sympathy if Easter Sunday became a trading day towards looking at it becoming another public holiday for the people who are employed. 
Let us also acknowledge that many occupations and professions work regularly on Easter Sunday. The people I think of first and foremost are the police ambulance officers and those who service the downside of our communities. But there is also the industry that I come from—the shipping and stevedoring industry. People from those industries work in all weathers any day of the week. There are very few days on which they do not work and they are on shift work 24 hours a day. 
Nowadays shopping is becoming therapy as I am told quite frequently not only by my good wife but by very many other women. It has turned into an enjoyable pastime. I must admit that I enjoy walking in the supermarket and pushing the trolley for my wife while she just fills it up. I get a little bit worried when it starts to overflow because sooner or later someone has to pay for the items. But by and large shopping can be an enjoyable experience. 
In the place that Bob Clarkson and I come from where we have the most efficient port in this country—they are all efficient and I am not going to damn any port but the Port of Tauranga is by far the most efficient port in the country—they bring in cruise ships regularly. It does not make sense that when tourists come off the cruise ship they cannot go shopping on an Easter Sunday so they get in a bus or a taxi and go through to Taupo. That does not make sense to the people of Tauranga so we need some legislation to address the issue. Unfortunately I do not think that Jacqui Dean’s bill will make it but we are encouraged by the Steve Chadwick bill. As I said earlier it is a carbon copy of what Winston Peters came up with years ago— 
Tariana Turia 
: Winston Peters? 
PETER BROWN 
: Yes really the Rt Hon Winston Peters—about 10 years ago. 
Rodney Hide 
: Is he still in Parliament? 
PETER BROWN 
: Mr Hide has done too much dancing if he does not know that Winston Peters is still the most effective politician in this place by a country mile—and the member knows it. But I digress. 
When it comes to Easter trading our shop trading legislation is in a mess. We need to address that. We need to take note of what the public of New Zealand want. We need to take note of the advantages to New Zealand. We need to address the social downsides as was very well illustrated—though it was a little bit over the top—by my colleague Mark Gosche. But we need legislation based around one of these bills and the best bill to address the issue is the Steve Chadwick bill which is entitled the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First will be voting against Jacqui Dean’s Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill and voting for Steve Chadwick’s bill. Thank you very much.