Chadwick Steve: Rotorua District (Easter Sunday Shop Trading) Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Rotorua District (Easter Sunday Shop Trading) Bill — Second Reading 
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STEVE CHADWICK (NZ Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I move  
That the Rotorua District (Easter Sunday Shop Trading) Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill was first introduced on 6 November 2002. At the time the House voted 91 to 26 to refer the bill to the Commerce Committee. I thank my colleagues on the Commerce Committee for delivering the report on this bill to the House and allowing debate today. I have never been pressured to withdraw the bill as the Rt Hon Winston Peters mistakenly felt had happened. 
The Rotorua District Council on knowing last year that we were no longer having any success with the Easter shop trading bill moved quickly to attempt to close a longstanding anomaly that arose from previous bills relating to Easter shop trading. The conscience vote in the House in support of Easter trading in 2002 was lost 70 to 47. Our community did not take that decision lying down. We had watched previous attempts to liberalise holiday trading fail except for an exemption proposed by the Greens in 2001 that allowed garden centres to open. I cannot for the life of me see why that type of retail outlet is any different from mainstream retailers. 
The timing of the debate today is very fortuitous and I thank the House for allowing the debate to occur. It is only 1 month until Easter and the Rotorua district has been waiting for 13 years to clear the position allowing it to open for business on Easter Sunday. This Easter is a huge weekend for us being the middle of a school holiday and there being a Super 12 rugby game on Saturday in Rotorua where the Chiefs are playing. As a community we need to know where we stand and hopefully today the wisdom of the House will prevail for us and an ambiguity that irks our district will be cleared for once and for all. 
As a district we have been poorly served since 1990. No previous member for Rotorua attempted to correct the schedule of exemptions attached to the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act in 1990. That was in spite of the fact that we had a previous Minister of Commerce as a local MP; perhaps there were simply bigger fish to fry. There are 20 other geographic areas that were granted an exemption to trade by the Shop Trading Hours Commission under the Shop Trading Hours Act in 1977 on the grounds of their importance as tourism areas. We have a very silly situation whereby Queenstown and Taupo are able to open for business and we are not. We were simply left off the list. Whilst those exemptions were carried over under the transitional provisions of the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act in 1990 the mechanism for granting further exemptions was abolished. As a result we were left out of the loop again. 
As well as geographic exemptions certain shops are entitled to trade; those shops providing food drink household and personal items and automotive fuel and parts of a kind that people may reasonably need to buy at any time may sell them. That is now patently absurd in a modern day and age. 
A Lincoln University study of Rotorua tourism shows that tourism accounts for $830 million annually in our local economy. We welcome over 1.4 million tourists per annum and during Easter accommodation regularly outstrips supply. Tourism also provided one in six jobs in our district and that means a lot to us. 
I have advocated for change since I was a district councillor back in 1995 and I have been consistent in my stand to get this anomaly corrected. That has been perceived as an interesting philosophical stance for a Labour member but I have no problem with it. My position is very clear as the electorate MP for a major tourist district. It is an extreme frustration that our visitor numbers are increasing every major holiday and the town has simply no option but to close its doors to a substantial economic opportunity year after year. 
The fines that our retailers brave if they choose to have their shops open during Easter are another factor that causes me some considerable concern. Every retailer who flouts the law is subject to a fine of $1000. Last Easter there were 31 prosecutions nationally and we do not need that added burden. That and the accompanying despair of the legislative process that has failed us to date have resulted in considerable tension. I do not support the approach of civil disobedience being proposed by a local leader of the retail sector this Easter. It is simply a reflection of the degree of frustration felt locally. It is on the grounds of working through an appropriate process that I am proud to sponsor this bill for the Rotorua district. This is a bill that the district council itself has written in response to the legislative lack of support in the past. 
I want to explore the opportunities that have been open to us prior to this local bill. We attempted to develop a joint local bill with our neighbour Tauranga but that is simply not legislatively possible. One cannot have a joint local bill. I then lobbied hard to get the numbers to support Rodney Hide’s bill. Any amendment that I proposed was not accepted and was seen to be outside the scope of that bill. I was aware of that but what other option did I have but to attempt to work within the proposed framework. Cheap shots were fired from the Opposition that I was a lazy member not doing my job for Rotorua. Well that description does not sit easily with me or with the community that I know and respect. I then worked with the council to develop this bill and also advised it that any attempt to include Easter Friday would probably not be accepted given the vote in the House in 2002. With the support of the Ready to Retail sector and major local tourism leaders such as Tamaki Tours Paradise Valley Springs and Skyline Skyrides I am proud to sponsor the local bill that is before us today. 
This bill was successfully referred to the Commerce Committee and the committee reported back to the House in February this year. The committee did not have a particular recommendation on the passage of this bill but noted that it would be up to the conscience of the House to decide. Those in favour of the bill are local retailers. It is they whom this bill will benefit. It is time that we sat up and listened to the people who will be directly affected rather than turning a blind eye to them because of our anomalous set of current shop trading hours. 
I stress that the bill does propose protections for workers who choose not to work on Easter Sunday. I remain satisfied that the provisions to cover the rights of workers that were agreed with the 
Green amendment in 2001 are carried over into this bill. 
I tend to agree with some of the submitters that this bill is difficult to consider given a parallel process that the Minister Margaret Wilson agreed to establish this year. That was after Rotorua did the work on this bill. There is a working-party established and it will not be able to report back to the Minister by this Easter. It was only after the tabling of this very specific Rotorua bill that any other approach was considered at my recommendation. I am pleased to have the Minister’s support. 
I do not accept that we need more research and data in order to help us reach a decision. We have had surveys census data time-use data and labour force data and a local review in 2002 showed us that 56 percent of Rotorua wants Easter Sunday trading. I believe that if a community wants the right to trade we should be able to proceed on those lines. I am determined to do everything I can to see Rotorua trading this Easter and this local bill is our last resort. I urge my colleagues to give their support to this bill.