Turner Judy: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Turner Judy: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading)Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill and again for the second time tonight I am speaking on my own behalf with this being members’ day. Never before have I valued the role of conscience as much as I have today. 
Can I explain to members particularly those on the front bench of the National Party that I was never privy to any discussions that fuelled Mr Copeland’s resignation. As I clarified to interested media this afternoon I have never entertained the idea of leaving United Future. It is my political home and I am 100 percent supportive of both the Hon Peter Dunne and the strong stand our party has always taken on conscience votes and of Mr Copeland’s right to exercise his. 
So tonight I speak on my own behalf. Centre parties are very pragmatic around policy. We attract to ourselves people from a wide range of interests and persuasions and that is our strength. On conscience issues we respect individual choice so United Future will be registering a second split vote tonight on this member’s bill. I will be voting against the bill. The reason I am opposing this bill is not because Easter is a religious holiday for me—one that I value personally. If that was what it was all about then that would be me imposing something that is special for me on to the rest of the country. That is not my reason. 
I remember that in my first reading speech I quoted Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who has a whole chapter about what he calls “public spaces” in one of his very wonderful books in which he talks about the fact that some things we value in society have no economic value at all. He uses public parks as an example. We take prime real estate—land that could be used very productively for high-rise buildings office rentals and retail outlets—and we set it aside and plant it in gardens because we understand that in the flurry of inner city life people need somewhere to go to take time out and that public parks provide that opportunity. Parks also provide public space for families to enjoy recreation together. Yet if we operated under monetary considerations we would never set aside space for public parks because they serve no economic good. 
I believe that the 3½ days that we have left when huge numbers of people who work in our retail sector can have some time with their families do not make economic sense. But that is not why I am opposing this bill. The reason is that it makes no social sense. 
On Anzac Day I went to the service in Whakatane and really enjoyed what went on there. I spent some time with veterans and others afterwards. And then the shops opened. It occurred to me that in respect of the Easter trading bills we have been looking at nobody seems to have taken the line that if there was to be any movement we could possibly have half-day restrictions rather than cancelling out whole days. 
However I am not sure that even then I could have supported the bill. I will tell members about one of the discussions I had that really affected my decision on this issue. It was a discussion with somebody from the Maori Party who pointed out to me that for Maori people the Easter weekend is a really important one when extended family get together. Often iwi have sporting events and it is the one weekend in a year that they can guarantee a really substantial turn-out of people because of those 2 holidays. I had questioned whether it was fair that we had two holidays like this in the one weekend and whether maybe one of those days could be spread somewhere else. But no I think it is really great that we do have one weekend in 52 in the year when families can get together. 
When we look at the huge number of people in New Zealand who work in retail we have to understand how many families this issue impacts. I do not think that I had appreciated the work that people in retail do and the large numbers involved in that sector until my children became adults. Certainly in their late teenage years they worked in retail for a while and it was really really hard to find an opportunity—particularly over the Christmas new year and holiday seasons—when we could actually get together as a family. We had 1 day on Christmas Day but everybody had to leave early on Christmas Day to get back to their work obligations so even that day was disrupted. 
Here we are with a long weekend when families can get together—really the only one we have left. I was raised in the days when shops did not open on Sundays and that happened 52 Sundays of the year or on a whole lot of other public holidays when we could guarantee that we could have time with our family. My opposition to this bill is based on the fact that I fiercely oppose the notion that we would take away one more hour from the 3½ days that currently exist. I am very pleased that the unions back my approach; I think it is good to see them throwing their weight behind this and behind the retail workers. I think it is an appalling notion and I am thoroughly opposed to it progressing any further.