Tremain Chris: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tremain Chris: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3609] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise to speak in support of the first reading of Steve Chadwick’s Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill. The bill enables territorial authorities to decide whether retail shops in their districts may open on Easter Sunday and requires those authorities before making any such decision to consult their communities by adopting a special consultative process provided for in Part 6 of the Local Government Act 2002. I support this bill going to the Commerce Committee and in doing so I thank Steve and Jacqui for putting two bills of this nature before the committee. I am sure Maryan Street as part of that committee will join me in thanking both members for giving us this particular workload. I am sure they can trust us to make sure we get a good result from the two bills. 
Tonight I want to support this bill but also to discuss the differences between the two bills which I think is important. Some differences have been highlighted and also some confusion. Firstly Steve Chadwick’s bill relates only to Easter Sunday whereas Jacqui’s bill relates to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. So my initial thinking is that this bill goes only halfway. The second point is that Steve’s bill puts the responsibility on to local councils whereas Jacqui’s bill allows legislation in Parliament to take account of the whole issue. My concern with responsibility going to local body level is that as Jacqui pointed out it once again puts costs back on to local councils. Jacqui used the example of a $20000 cost for a council in the South Island. I think that is a concern. We are always hearing in Parliament that we are continuing to put costs back on to local body councils. So I say once again that it is a concern. 
I say to Peter Brown that Jacqui’s bill allows for multiple local territorial authorities to come on board. 
Peter Brown 
: Why didn’t you say that at the beginning? 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: Well it is pretty clear in the bill that there is that opportunity. 
In terms of similarities both bills seek to allow trading on an Easter weekend. There was some confusion in a  
New Zealand Herald  
article today but both bills do protect employees’ rights as to whether they wish to work on those days. I say to Gordon Copeland that that is something I want talk about. The bills do provide the choice for people to work or not to work which is the point Gordon raised. Both bills do not specifically compel shops to open. It is that choice that I want to talk about. In terms of my own businesses being given the choice to open on Good Friday or Easter Sunday I would have no compulsion to open my businesses on those days and I would certainly allow people who work within my businesses the opportunity to continue to have a holiday. I believe that it is a matter of choice. Gordon talked about mankind being born to be free; I guess by being free there is that choice to allow people to have holidays which I think is important. 
I believe there are anomalies in the current law as Steve pointed out—specifically that shops in Taupo can open yet shops in Rotorua 1 hour up the road cannot. It is a crazy situation. Garden centres around the country can open regardless but many other retail shops cannot. That is just silly. New Zealand has a 24-hour 7-day-a-week trading environment; there is nothing more sure. The tourism industry currently provides approximately $12 billion of New Zealand’s gross domestic product so I believe that it is important for in particular cities like Napier and Rotorua to be able to continue to provide services throughout the Easter period. That will be good. Comments made recently not by the Anglican Church but certainly by the Catholic Church show that the church has no particular issues with this bill because it is believed that choice will reign. 
Both bills will now come before the select committee. Once again I thank both the ladies who are putting that additional work before us. I am confident we will get to a resolution on this issue but in closing I say that I certainly believe there should be no half measures and that we should not be imposing additional costs on our regional councils because they have enough costs as it is.