Locals need say on Easter trading - MP | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Rotorua MP Todd McClay is hoping the city's residents will get the chance to have their say about whether they want shops to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

That's after Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean's member's bill to liberalise Easter trading in the Waitaki electorate was drawn from the ballot at Parliament last week.

Mrs Dean's bill includes the opening of shops on Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the Waitaki region. If the bill is passed shop owners would have the choice to open and employees would be able to choose whether to work.

Mr McClay said while he was personally in favour of shops opening on Easter Sunday but not Good Friday he would like to see New Zealanders have their chance to make submissions on both days.

He expected the bill would be debated early next month and he hoped it would reach select committee stage, giving people a chance to have their say. To reach that stage Parliament needed to vote in favour of the bill.

Last December Mr McClay's member's bill went down 62-59 on a conscience vote, with Labour list MP Steve Chadwick the only Labour MP to support it.

This is the 12th time Parliament has been asked to change New Zealand's Easter trading regulations in the past 20 years.

Mr McClay said there was still some work to be done before the bill was debated.

"I will look at every opportunity to convince a few additional MPs to vote to support this bill."

Mr McClay said only two more MPs were needed to change their vote and he hoped Mrs Chadwick would support the bill and convince one of her Labour MPs to also back it.

If Mrs Dean's bill reached select committee stage, Mr McClay would seek for it to be broadened to include Rotorua.

Mr McClay said he hoped it would reach select committee stage so that "New Zealand's mums and dads, families, individuals who worked in shops or owned shops" could have their say, not just unions and representatives of  business.

Asked if he was confident the bill would get that far, Mr McClay said he would have to "wait and see".

Mrs Chadwick said she would reserve her decision on whether to support the bill and that support would depend on the inclusion of a clause protecting workers' rights.

However, the Government had not convinced her it had done anything to protect workers over the past 18 months.

"We have got a real challenge with the Government attacking workers with the 90-day probation period and the sale of the fourth week of annual leave," she said. "There's [now] more of an entrenched position that National has brought upon itself."

National Distribution Union general secretary Robert Reid said New Zealand did not need Easter trading.

"Easter is one of the few guaranteed times that retail workers can have off, to take part in family, community and religious activities at this time."

"Despite Jacqui Dean saying that her bill is about choice and that shops aren't being forced to open, our  members in retail say this is not a real choice in practice. Once the competitor down the road opens, so too will their shop open, and they will be required to work."