McClay Todd: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
McClay Todd: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 I move  
That the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 New Zealand has a proud history of freedom of expression of listening to everyday New Zealanders and of empowering local communities to take responsibility for the places they live in. This Parliament has a proud record of inviting all citizens to offer their views on issues of conscience. We can be proud that we have encouraged every citizen to make their thoughts known to us before we make tough decisions. However since the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act was adopted in 1990 the city of Rotorua has been excluded from providing a full range of services to tourists and to visitors. You see Rotorua is and continues to be the pre-eminent tourist and visitor destination in New Zealand. Easter weekend is one of our busiest weekends; many many thousands of domestic and international visitors come to see us during this time. 
It is not a weekend where mums and dads want to buy cut-rate plasma screen televisions or the latest in trendiest school shoes for little Johnny. They can do that if they choose over many other days of the year. Largely local people choose to spend time with families or to get away from Rotorua because it is a busy weekend or they choose even to go out and fix a fence have a barbecue or mow the lawn—great Kiwi pastimes. It is a weekend where tourists from all over the world visit us experience the many wonders we have to offer eat and drink relax and do many of the things that people choose to do when they are on holiday which does include shop. 
The people of Rotorua want a choice. During the campaign last year Steve Chadwick and I both committed to represent the people of Rotorua and to work to offer Rotorua this choice—the choice to cater to the very many diverse requirements of visitors to our city over Easter. 
Parliament has dealt with this issue many times in the past and I believe that this could be the 10th time since 1990 that we will have considered Easter trading. Others before me have attempted to offer Easter trading on all days of that weekend including Good Friday but my bill does not do that. There have been attempts to bring the same rules to all parts of New Zealand for Easter weekend but again my bill does not seek to do that either. There have been attempts to compel leaseholders to open their shops and workers to work on these days; again my bill does not do that. What my bill does do is offer choice. It empowers local communities through their councils to decide for themselves what changes they might want in the towns they live in on Easter Sunday. It will allow councils bound by the provisions of the Local Government Act to consult the public to consider the views of their residents and to decide where there is a clear local desire to pass a by-law to cover trade on this day. For my part of New Zealand we would seek this change. 
However for the majority of towns and cities in rural areas there is little need to allow shops to open. In Rotorua there is a very clear need to offer local people choice—to offer the people of Rotorua the opportunity to decide for themselves whether their shops should open to cater to tourists on Easter Sunday. Any part of New Zealand that does not want different trading practices needs to take no action at all and current restrictions will remain in place in full. 
The current law is quite messy to say the least. The issues are well-rehearsed: Taupo can open on Easter Sunday yet 80 kilometres away Rotorua does not have that choice. Queenstown can open and caters to a thriving tourist clientele; just down the road Wanaka cannot. There is therefore no blanket ban on Easter trading in New Zealand. However we see arbitrary rules: some local communities can trade on Easter Sunday while others cannot. 
This is not a debate about whether Taupo or Queenstown Rotorua or Wanaka are the most important tourist destinations. All four clearly are important to the country and to their local communities. This is a debate about local communities such as Rotorua Wanaka and any other such tourist destination having a choice at a local level over what they want to do on Easter Sunday. As New Zealand’s tourism profile changes we need to have a law on Easter Sunday trading that is flexible enough to deal with changing profiles. My bill provides flexibility for local communities to determine for themselves whether to open on Easter Sunday as their needs change rather than have them come back to Parliament each time to ask for an exception. My bill will not compel shops to open in Rotorua or in any part of New Zealand. No provision in the current or future shop-lease agreement will compel any shop to open against the owner’s wishes. My bill will not compel any worker in Rotorua or in New Zealand to work on Easter Sunday should he or she not wish to do so; no part of a current or future employment contract would be enforceable against a worker who does not wish to work on that day. This bill will not compel any person—local tourist visitor or member of Parliament—to shop on this day; it will be their choice whether to do so. 
I have received many messages from groups and individuals over the last few months on this bill. Many people have been supportive but there are some people who harbour reservations. I respect all these views but the overwhelming message I have received is in support of local choice so that these decisions can be made locally. I have received many many messages from people and organisations who have asked that this bill be referred to a select committee so that their views can be heard and I respect those requests. These people have told me they support choice. They support local residents and local communities deciding for themselves what choices they want in their home town on Easter Sunday. 
I ask the House for support to refer this bill to a select committee so that all New Zealanders can have a say on whether choice is important to them. Voting today to refer this bill to a select committee does not mean that members are in favour of trading on Easter Sunday. It merely sends the message that they are in favour of churches union members chambers of commerce workers shop owners and individual citizens having a say on whether this bill should be amended adopted or rejected by this Parliament as a whole. 
One of the great attractions New Zealand has as a visitor destination is our nimbleness in catering for the different needs of international visitors. Many of our tourism industries are small operators working hard to make a living in difficult international environments. Small ideas can flourish into great successes stories that create jobs and help our local economies. Who would have thought 30 years ago that tying a rubber band to one’s legs and jumping off a bridge would be a major export earner? Who could have conceived 30 years ago that getting into a boat and watching whales would be a multimillion-dollar business? Rotorua is one community that needs the flexibility to be able to trade on Easter Sunday and to be competitive with other areas of New Zealand that already allow this. My community is asking for this choice. 
This weekend Rotorua celebrates a great milestone. Rotorua Regional Airport will become trans-Tasman when we welcome our first scheduled flight from Sydney. This is exciting for Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty. Air New Zealand will bring Australians to our city twice each week. Many more Australians will visit us and our Easter weekend will become busier and more important to our tourism operators and tourist shops. For 20 long years Parliament has told Rotorua that we cannot decide for ourselves what to do over Easter weekend. Parliament has told us that we cannot decide to work—open our shops and cater to the demands of visitors and tourists on this day. My hope is for MPs from all parties to understand that in Rotorua we want the right to choose for ourselves what we will do on Easter Sunday. We do not want to tell others in other parts of the country what they should do—that is a choice for them. We ask Parliament to support us. I ask the House to support my bill’s referral to a select committee. At the appropriate time I will move that the bill be referred to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I understand that the next call is a split call. Two members will have 5 minutes and there will be a bell at 4 minutes.