Dean Jacqui: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dean Jacqui: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I thank Steve Chadwick who is on the other side of the House. 
Hon Member 
: Steady! 
JACQUI DEAN 
: The member should not worry; it will not get too fulsome. Steve and I both have the same goal in mind; we just have a different way of getting there. We both want the Easter trading issue to be settled once and for all—I think we agree on that. But although Steve’s approach gets us bogged down in the local government process of endless expensive consultation my approach is elegantly simple. My approach is that should the bill get to the Committee stage which I really hope it does then other towns with a significant visitor industry can be added by way of a Supplementary Order Paper or an amendment. That was always my intention with this bill. I named Wanaka because the people of Wanaka came to me wanting me to help them fix once and for all the ongoing Groundhog Day - like problem of Easter trading. 
There has been a lot of interest from all around New Zealand in this Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill. I have had messages phone calls and inquiries from many people. I have had inquiries from Napier Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay and I have had indications from Northland that it would like to be part of this bill. I have had messages from the Bay of Plenty Dunedin Wanganui Gisborne Nelson Greymouth Blenheim Invercargill and of course many from Wanaka. I remind those members of the House that this level of interest tells me that it is not just me and other MPs who want changes to this legislation; it is the retailers from around New Zealand. Business groups from around the country are looking to us to provide leadership on this issue effect change to this archaic legislation and in the first instance send this bill through to the select committee. 
I refer to a piece of paper that plopped onto my desk one day and being a new MP this tends to happen often—one gets landed with bits of paper that one does not quite know what they mean until one reads them. This one was quite interesting. 
Hon Member 
: We often call them leaks. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Yes thank you. This report from the Ministry of Justice provided some advice on whether the Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill is consistent with the rights and freedoms set out in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. I was really interested to read section 47 of the Holidays Act 2003 as advised. It states: “An employer may require an employee to work on a public holiday if—(a) the public holiday falls on a day on which but for it being a public holiday would otherwise be a working day for the employee; and (b) the employee is required to work on the public holiday under the employee’s employment agreement.” The Ministry of Justice report goes on to state that if employees do not wish to work on Good Friday and/or Easter Sunday they cannot be required to work unless they have agreed to in their employment agreement. So I was very interested to read that from the Ministry of Justice. 
I think the definition of Wanaka in the schedule works extremely well for Wanaka. There is a post shop in the middle of Wanaka and in consultation with the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce we worked out that a radius of I think 20 or 25 kilometres from the post shop brought in all those retail areas that wanted to be brought in and included in this bill. So too with Tauranga. In consultation with local business leaders in Tauranga they agreed that that was the area they wanted described in the schedule. I do not care how visitor districts are described in the schedule. It does not matter. What matters is that those areas that want to be included in the schedule are described in the way they would like to be described. 
I take issue with the idea that family life is threatened by a few shops being open over Easter. Family life may be threatened by many many things but I have never seen family life threatened by mum dad and a couple of kids going to the shops for a coffee and a spot of shopping over Easter. I think there is a tendency to get a little bit too serious about this issue. I think it is very important for all of us to remember that they are only shops. They are nothing threatening or awful; they are only shops. 
Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak to this bill and I hope that once and for all we can set this matter to rest. I would like to see this bill go to a select committee.