Chadwick Steve: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
Chadwick Steve: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11987] 
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I am thrilled to get an opportunity to speak on this bill which I support. The debate began so sensibly and moderately but I knew that it would deteriorate into an expression of some wildly diverse views and that is a reflection of the nature of the broad church of this House. 
After the second reading on the original bill that lapsed and our decision to put pressure on setting up a working party we decided to take the issue out of politicians’ hands because we could not reach consensus on it. It had been around for years and years and yes we could not get the numbers to pass the bill. I would like to thank that working party which also reflected a very broad church. It had representation from the Council of Trade Unions the Retailers Association the tourism industry and local government. I think that was a great reflection. 
We are here tonight to consider the report that has come back from the Commerce Committee which considered the recommendations of the working party report. That consideration arose after I sponsored a local bill for Rotorua on Easter shop trading. The report that has come back reflects the vote in the House the night we lost that local bill. People accepted there were some days they did not want to touch and the one day that was acceptable was Easter Sunday—shops could open on Easter Sunday. This working party report we are considering tonight reflects how the vote went then. Could I remind members of the House that that vote was lost by four votes. 
Rotorua I have to say was quite devastated after that because Rotorua had gone out to its constituency and asked them what they wanted. They considered that the only day feasible for them to open because Rotorua is a tourism icon was Easter Sunday. 
There are two options in this report and one option is that the local authority can make the decision—which is what New Zealand First favours. I say as an electorate MP for Rotorua that that would go our way but after hearing the debate on the local bill where everybody else came in—Napier Queenstown and other areas said they wanted to open too—I am not prepared to see those anomalies come before the House again. That is why I support that across New Zealand there is the right to open on Easter Sunday—not to have workers coerced into having to turn up to work on Sunday but to give retailers the right to open. I think that is a sensible approach. We nearly got there on our local bill but lost it by four votes. 
I feel the mood of the House will not be changed by this debate tonight; we all have fairly fixed views on it. We respect the views of those who want to go to church. We respect values of families and we respect the need for time with one’s family. But the world has changed and I find it hypocritical actually that the Greens do not support this report. At the previous vote the Greens came thundering into the House with an amendment to allow garden centres to open on Easter Sunday. Why on earth are they not supporting this bill that allows retailers to open on Easter Sunday? We have service stations open we have dairies open and we have garden centres open. We will have vineyards open and we will have 24-hour health centres with pharmacies attached open. 
The world is changing. It is closing in on those who do not want that isolated day to be tampered with. But I am afraid it is a different world the genie is out of the bottle and we need a sensible approach as politicians to manage the balance of days left to us to have open—those 3½ days. I want to have it put to the vote and put through before Easter Sunday. We are tired of this legislation. I have debated it for 4 years every Easter and I will continue to do that until the tide in the House turns to support this vote.