Brown Peter: Shop Trading Hours (Easter Trading Local Exemption) Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Shop Trading Hours (Easter Trading Local Exemption) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:620;Page:15496] 
PETER BROWN (NZ First) 
 on behalf of  
Doug Woolerton (NZ First) 
: I move  
That the Shop Trading Hours (Easter Trading Local Exemption) Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be considered by the Local Government and Environment Committee and that it be requested to report back to the House before Parliament rises at the end of the year. The reason for doing that is in order to give the bill the best possible chance of becoming enacted by Easter 2005. 
This bill has as its primary thrust—and I want to make this clear—the shifting of responsibility from central government to local government after consultation with their community for determining if and when shops may open on Easter Sunday. That is the primary thrust. It is a fairly innocuous piece of legislation that simply devolves a bit of extra responsibility to the local communities. 
Already a vast array of shops almost everywhere in New Zealand are able to open their doors on Easter Sunday. These include retailing in food drinks personal items auto parts fuel duty-free goods and those shops catering to the needs of the travelling public in passenger terminals selling books magazines newspapers and whatever. We already have trading on days such as Easter Sunday but it is restricted and very limited in scope. Several communities throughout New Zealand have already been granted exemption to open shops on Easter Sunday. They have been given exemption from the existing shop trading hours provisions and provide an excellent and worthwhile service in particular to the thousands of international tourists and local and domestic tourists who gather in places as diverse as Queenstown the Kapiti coast Picton if there is a cruise ship in port Parnell in Auckland Taupo Paihia and Nelson to give but a few examples. Tourist patterns have changed and a good number of other areas are equally deserving of this consideration. This bill simply provides for that to occur. 
Over recent years New Zealand has become more tourist focused—and we have; we have to develop tourism in this country and I do not think any member will disagree with that—especially so towards attracting international tourists but the needs and wants of those travelling have not kept pace with the demands of the market’s customer base. In other words we are not providing what the tourists basically want on this particular day. No longer do we see evidence of the practice we once saw of our cities and towns looking like ghost towns on Easter Sunday. We now see bustling activity and increasingly in places that are largely tourist-oriented such as Tauranga. Tourists are out and about seeking to enjoy their time and to purchase the things that tourists spend so much on whilst on holiday. In Tauranga and in Rotorua—the city next door—shops are closed on Easter Sunday despite market demand and despite people going to those places and wanting to shop and those tourists move on to places such as Taupo. 
This bill provides the opportunity for local communities to determine what is best for them and how they wish to treat their visitors. This bill makes it incumbent upon local councils to seek the views of their community if they believe it is to be in anyone’s best interest to have shops open on Easter Sunday. This bill does not allow shops to open on Easter Sunday per se it simply tells the local council that it has the opportunity to decide whether shops can open. It is totally voluntary. There is nothing forced and nothing is imposed. This bill does not provide any automatic right for a shop owner to open; neither does it give the right to local councils to determine what is to occur with regard to the opening of shops on Easter Sunday. 
The bill can be described as being permissive only. It does not prescribe anything at all other than a very democratic process at a community level for local shop owners to seek exemption from the current centrally imposed restrictions on being open on Easter Sunday. I heard in the previous debate the Greens talk about democracy in terms of their Education (School Boards of Trustees Single Transferable Vote Option) Amendment Bill. This is democratic. This bill allows the local people to make the choice for themselves. It stops central government—anybody in this place—from imposing restrictions or imposing the ability for shops to open. It simply says: “Mr and Mrs Mayor you and your council decide whether you want shops to open on Easter Sunday.” It does not seem right and proper to us in New Zealand First to allow that right in places such as Queenstown Taupo the Kapiti coast and Picton when a cruise ship is in yet prohibit that same right in places such as Tauranga and Rotorua. 
I know there will be some counterarguments that say: “What about the workers?” and all that sort of thing— 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: What about the workers? 
PETER BROWN 
: I thank Mr Benson-Pope for that. I hoped he would have said that before now. Let me talk about the workers. This will be voluntary. Nobody will be compelled to work if they do not want to. This will be totally voluntary. I can tell members now from my experiences in Tauranga in particular and I am certain the member for Rotorua will back this up that there will be thousands of people who will want to work of their own accord. 
To deny this is to deny the local bodies in New Zealand the chance to make their own decisions—to do what is best for their communities. It is not our job to impose restrictions. Equally so it is not our job to make it compulsory—“thou shalt be open”. Our job is to set laws that are fair and square throughout the whole of this land. I say to members and I say it sincerely; if it is good enough for shops in Queenstown to open why is it not good enough for Rotorua shops to open? If it is good enough for the Kapiti coast shops to open why is it not good enough for Tauranga shops to open? This bill will not compel any shop owner as I have said quite a few times now to open if he or she desires not to. This simply gives shop owners the opportunity to open their shops during a long weekend and provide service to their customers and tourists. 
Tourists come from far and wide now to visit this country because of our clean green image and I hasten to say the friendly attitude that New Zealanders display towards people who come to this country. Tourists expect the shops to be open to some reasonable degree. Gone are the days when I think it was a chap called Sir Clement Freud from Britain came here and said: “I visited New Zealand on Easter Sunday”—or some such day—“but it was closed.” Those days are over. We are now in the 21st century and this bill in a very small way brings us further into this century. People expect the shops to open tourists expect the shops to open and international tourists most certainly expect to get some service from shops. 
 For tourists to arrive on a cruise ship at the port of Mount Maunganui and walk down the streets and see all the shops closed on Easter Sunday is rather naive. It is absolutely insulting to the people of Tauranga that tourists would have to get into a minibus or taxi and drive for 2 hours to Taupo to go shopping. How does that make sense? I have to be honest with members. I think that Tauranga shops would open but this bill does not compel them to open. I urge members to think positively and at least send the bill to select committee where it can be more widely discussed and receive submissions. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: If the House would bear with me for a minute. Mr Brown it is normal to set a date in the referral to send this bill to a committee. Your time frame was a bit uncertain. Would you prefer to put a date on it? I will allow you to do it in your right of reply. It needs a date so we can have certainty.