Roy Heather: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Roy Heather: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the second reading of the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill and I rise with pleasure to support Steve Chadwick in the debate on this bill. I think she should be congratulated on her perseverance as she has had this bill before the House previously. I would also mention Jacqui Dean’s contribution with her bill on the previous members’ day which the ACT party also supported. 
A bill of this type and a bill of the type that Jacqui Dean put forward is very familiar to the ACT party. Patricia Schnauer first had such a bill before this House in 1997 during ACT’s first term in Parliament. That bill was defeated after the bill was taken over by Rodney Hide in 1999 when Patricia Schnauer was no longer in Parliament. 
We have had a lot of correspondence about this bill as I guess most members have and in particular from Steve Chadwick’s own electorate. The Mayor of Rotorua has been very vocal on this issue. I had the opportunity to speak to him about this bill at a Rotary meeting I spoke at earlier this year in Rotorua and more recently at the chamber of commerce too. 
There are very good business reasons for putting this bill forward but they are not the only reasons. I think we have moved a long way in New Zealand. Those of us who have done our OE—and I suspect that is just about every one of us—used to make comments after coming back to New Zealand about New Zealand being closed on a Sunday. New Zealand has moved on significantly since then in that regard. 
If this bill passes local authorities in Rotorua and other local authorities will now have the opportunity to have a say as to whether shops are able to open on Easter Sunday. I will be supporting Jacqui Dean’s amendment as will my colleague Rodney Hide to add Good Friday to this legislation when it comes forward at the Committee stage. Rotorua and many towns like it have been disadvantaged particularly in tourism terms as a result of shops not being able to open and businesses not being able to ply their wares on Easter Sunday. 
We face the farce every Easter of garden centres opening flouting the law and acknowledging that they will have to pay a fine if they are caught. Usually they are caught and they hand the money over. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Green Party amendment. 
HEATHER ROY 
: Steve Chadwick is quite right—a Green Party amendment. We have the farce of having a law in place that is flouted mercilessly—and for very good reason because people want to go to garden centres and buy stuff so that they can then go home and participate in their gardening relaxation on a weekend when they have time to do so. The garden centres quite rightfully take advantage of that. 
I want to make this call a very short one. Many speakers have said that workers are severely disadvantaged by this bill. Workers have the choice of whether they want to work on Easter Sunday. Some people seem to think that workers have their arms twisted and are forced to go out and work on those days; they completely ignore the fact that many people around this country actually want to work because they want to earn more money. They do so for very sound reasons. They have families to support and they choose for themselves their work-life balance and the time they spend with their families. They find other times to do that. I have to say that I have no sympathy at all for that argument. 
ACT proudly supports this bill. We will also be supporting Jacqui Dean’s amendment to the bill so that Good Friday can be incorporated into the legislation. I hope this bill passes its second reading tonight because it is long overdue and has long been debated. I look forward to the day when businesses—like individuals—get to make choices about whether they open when the demand from the public and tourists is there.