Brown Peter: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
Brown Peter: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11977] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will support this bill. We will also support the idea of putting it through under urgency. If the bill is to be supported it would be ridiculous to pass it after Easter. I shall examine for one moment what would happen if this bill were passed after Easter. Many of the shops in the area I come from and where Steve Chadwick comes from will open anyway. Those shop owners are sick and tired of this issue not having been addressed over the past 6 years or so. We are talking about Easter Sunday. Those shops will open anyway. Those retailers will challenge the law. I have no doubt about that although I cannot speak from concrete knowledge. I do know they are absolutely sick to their back teeth of not being able to open on Easter Sunday. 
It is particularly bad in Tauranga. Quite often a cruise ship comes in the passengers get off get on to a bus and go to Taupo! They spend their money in Taupo and when they come back they ask why the shops do not open in Tauranga and whether this is the same country. Retailers have expressed in very strong terms how daft is the way things operate at the moment. People can buy a plant and something else in a garden shop but they cannot buy an everyday piece of equipment in any other shop. If this bill is not passed before Easter we will have an even more ridiculous situation whereby any retailers who open will be fined only to find that a few weeks later this legislation has been passed. That is stupid. We should have been addressing this issue years ago—not last year but years ago. 
Rodney Hide 
: We have been. 
PETER BROWN 
: I acknowledge Mr Hide’s comments. This side of the House has tried very very hard. With due respect to that member he wanted to liberalise things too much and that has been to his detriment and to ours. If we had stuck to what New Zealand First wanted—just opening on Easter Sunday—I think we would have got there a lot quicker. If we had stuck to what the Rt Hon Winston Peters wanted and New Zealand First supports which is that the local community would make a decision on whether that area opened on Easter Sunday we could have got there literally years ago. 
I want to clarify the New Zealand First minority report because I think it could have been written a little more clearly. We do not support the option of opening on Christmas Day or Anzac Day at the community’s wish. We only support the option of opening on Easter Sunday at the community’s wish. We should have made that clearer in the minority report. 
Much has been made of people with religious views. I like to think that I am a person of Christian beliefs and principles. I have no objection to this bill whatsoever from the Easter Sunday point of view. I am encouraged in that view by the one-time local vicar of Mount Maunganui. He was the vicar of two churches but he is no longer in the area. That is sad but he has been replaced by very good people. He has moved on to other pastures. He came along with a group of business people. I believe he met with the Rt Hon Winston Peters. Certainly he and his group of business colleagues met with myself and gave us a very very good workable view of why shops could easily be opened for retailing on Easter Sunday but did not take a religious stance. In brief he said: “If the shops were open people would feel encouraged to go out. If they went out they would come to my church with their families and I would have more people in my two churches than I currently have and that’s a good thing.” He was exceedingly positive about it. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Optimism defeating logic. 
PETER BROWN 
: I know the member is an eternal pessimist but he should come over here from time to time and get some positive vibes. He would have a much better outlook on life. I am a little bit worried about what the Christian socialist doctrine which obviously he subscribes to has done to him. Perhaps he should mix with New Zealand First people a little bit more frequently and he will get some positive vibes. We are firm believers in the people of this country. We believe that if local bodies had the choice they would make the right decision for their respective communities. That is where we are heading. 
When this bill gets to the Committee stage we will move an amendment to reflect that view. Notwithstanding even if that amendment is defeated we will support this bill. I have to say that our first preference is that local communities should determine whether shops open in their area. 
I want this bill to proceed and New Zealand First wants this bill to proceed at maximum speed. I do not know what we have to do to get it in the urgency motion but I hope the Government is taking notice. I suggest that New Zealand First would support an extension of urgency to get this bill comprehensively addressed. Let us get the issue sorted one way or the other before Easter. It must make sense even to those people who oppose the bill. Either it is dead in the water if that is what the member over there wants—I know he made his view clear—or we make sure it gets passed. But let us get law-abiding New Zealanders working together. They do not want this hanging over their heads. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Let’s have them together with their families. 
PETER BROWN 
: That member over there should look at my family and I am absolutely proud of them. I would go to war for my family. I brought them up to be commercially minded and with a social conscience. That member should not lecture me on bringing up a family. They have turned out to be great citizens. All my children are adults and all of them make a positive contribution to this country. I am very very conscious of the importance of the family group. To suggest that we are in breach of the family unit because we want shops to open on Easter Sunday is absolutely ludicrous. If we really are family minded there are far more important things that we should be doing or ensuring that are not occurring. 
For the remainder of my contribution I shall touch on the voluntary aspects of the bill. Obviously work for the shop owner is voluntary. I can tell members that shop owners in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui are feeling the pressure of losing business to Taupo. They get the pressure whether or not they are allowed to open. I compliment the Commerce Committee on inserting a clause that this is voluntary for the shop worker. I am conscious that Mr Paul Adams will pick me up on this if I suggest they are the only workers but I am referring to the employed worker. The bill provides them with the ability to refuse to work on Easter Sunday if they do not want to or cannot cope or whatever. 
This is a good bill. We support it but we want it addressed before Easter this year. We want it included in the urgency motion and if that is the only way we can do that let us have it.