Dean Jacqui: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:8415] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 Good on Todd McClay for bringing the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill to the House. Good on Todd McClay for standing up on behalf of the people of Rotorua whom he proudly represents in this Parliament. Good on Todd McClay for having yet another crack at getting some sense into an Act that is widely acknowledged as being full of anomalies and making little sense in today’s retail domestic and international tourism environment. Good on Todd McClay for bringing this legislation to the House. 
I fully support this legislation and I will tell members why. It is because my community of Wanaka is also one of those tourism destinations in New Zealand that relies on trading over Easter to make up to 20 percent of its annual retail figures. 
Hon Member 
: How much? 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Up to 20 percent. That is significant for retailers in Wanaka who despite being in a tourism area have to get through a tough winter environment and the tourism shoulder seasons which can see retail being a difficult area to be in. This excellent bill of Todd McClay’s has been thought through and it is well considered. He has drawn on attempts to bring legislation through the House in the past and it is eminently sensible. I tell members that that is because it is about choice. This bill leaves the decision about Easter trading to the local authority in that area. Who better to know the needs of a community and a retail sector than the local authority in which it lies? 
I will refer to a previous submission from July 2006 and I know that the feelings have not changed. The submission was on behalf of Clive Geddes the Mayor of Queenstown Lakes District Council. I believe that Mr Geddes is well placed to make a submission on this bill because in one of his towns there is the ability under the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act to trade over Easter under a previous iteration of this legislation yet in another part of his local authority area—in the town of Wanaka which is equally a tourism destination—there is not the ability to trade over Easter. Has family life been destroyed in Queenstown because its businesses can trade over Easter? I believe not. 
I know that community very well. I know the chamber of commerce in Queenstown quite well and interestingly enough people in Queenstown like to work. In Queenstown there are a number of young people and not so young people in the retail sector. Some of them are in permanent jobs and some are in temporary jobs. They like to work. They welcome the opportunity to work some extra hours. As we all know young people like to work during the day to make money in order to have a great time at night which of course is what they do in Queenstown. Life is fantastic for the workers of Queenstown because the have the opportunity to make a contribution to their town. They work during the day over Easter and they sure as heck party at night. That is one of the things that makes Queenstown one of the great places in New Zealand. The great shame is that people in Wanaka just over the Crown Range do not have that ability because of a strange anomaly within the law. So when Clive Geddes the Mayor of Queenstown Lakes District Council makes a submission it is from a man who knows what he is talking about. 
I hope that this bill gets sent to a select committee for good consideration. I know that this bill has the support of the chamber of commerce in Wanaka. The members of it are most anxious to have the ability to open at Easter. The Warbirds over Wanaka International Air Show comes to Wanaka every second year. We also have the Race to the Sky. Up to 100000 people come into Wanaka over the course of the Easter weekend. Those people want to shop and they want to have the ability to shop. I hope that this bill has a successful passage through the House so that they can do so.