by frog
One of the two Bills drawn from yesterday’s Member’s Bill ballot was National MP Todd McClay’s Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill designed to liberalise Easter Sunday trading.
It looks much like the last in this sorry list:
- The Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter) Amendment Bill 1996. Defeated
- The Shop Trading Hours (Repeal of Restrictions) Bill 1997. Defeated
- The Shop Trading Hours (Abolition of Restrictions) Bill 1999. Defeated
- The Rotorua District (Easter Sunday Shop Trading) Bill 2002. Defeated
- The Shop Trading Hours (Easter Trading Local Exemption) Bill 2004. Defeated
- The Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill 2006. Defeated
- The Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill 2006. Defeated
Yes, that’s right, no less than seven Bills on Easter Sunday trading introduced variously by National, Labour, and Act MPs over the last 13 years, and all consigned to the dustbin of legislative history. I hate to think how much Parliamentary time has been wasted in the process.
Here’s an idea. Instead of attempting to fiddle around with the rules about whether and where shops can open on Easter Sunday, let’s make it a public holiday so those employees who are already required to work on Easter Sunday can at least get a day in lieu that they can spend with their families.
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare by frog on Fri, November 20th, 2009
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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I’m interest to see that the Greens support religious holidays…
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woooosh!
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concerning the repetitiveness of said bills, do they have corks attached..? buoyancy etc.. do the non-corked know about this.?
metaphors being the so-called ‘in’ lingo circa Parliament these days.. I’m fairly sure that their significance will not be lost re the above here.. yea, even on a Friday
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@BLiP
Good point. I’d support that one too. It is a long haul between Queen’s Birthday and Labour Weekend, and I suspect many employees take a “sickie” during that time anyway to get a 3 or 4 day weekend. Better that it be formalised.
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And why not?
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I absolutely agree, it should be a public holiday.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Copy that BluePeter.
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it certainly would be commercially viable…..for big shops that open 365 days a year shouldnt be open during Easter
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I certainly support making Easter Sunday a public holiday, in fairness to employees of businesses normally open on Sundays. This has nothing to do with it being of religious significance.
The craziest day in the supermarkets is the Saturday between Easter Friday and Easter Sunday, as shoppers try to squeeze three days purchasing into one day. Easing up the rules that apply on Easter Friday may make more sense.
Trevor.
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Rather than having public holidays on religious and national occasions designated by others, I’d rather have time off when I choose.
Why not convert all our holidays into extra mandatory leave (so we’d get 6 weeks a year) and remove the right for employers to force people to take time off at certain times (e.g. christmas shutdowns).
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rich_d_rich – there are often Health & Safety reasons for employers to require their employees to work the same times that their supervisors, etc work. There are also likely to be logistical issues as well.
Trevor.
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Mostly there aren’t though – your average office worker can work from home or as part of a skeleton crew during traditional holiday periods.
The christmas closedown is very much an NZ thing. In the UK, we had the choice to work or not over the xmas break – most didn’t, but some did and kept the office open.
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isn’t Sunday a holiday anyway?
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“If we should trade on Easter, why not go the full way, work on Christmas day and halt the restrictions on ANZAC day morning then we will see how partiotic the sponsor of the bill is, especially as this day has grown in significance over the last 15 odd years. I personnal believe that ANZAC should be extended to cover the entire day, as this is truely a National day (That we can all agree on and what cost NZ has paid for) and also to include Matariki. To give us 5 FULL days that NZ is closed.”
Hmmmm so the obvious irony of the State forcing people to shut their shop doors on the day we remember our war dead who fought FOR freedom against state fascism such as this goes right over your pointy little head does it?
We should be celebrating ANZAC day by letting freedom reign and activley engaging in consentual freely chossen activities to really say thanks for what old soldiers did….not spitting on their grave with more State regulations and threats.
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I think Greens just generally support public holidays that acknowledge all parts of our society. Why shouldn’t Easter be one of them?
IMO the solution to the fact that too many of our holidays are colonial or christian-based is simply to add more.
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I’m touting for a Burning Man festival for Aotearoa and the week-long break that goes with it.
Any takers?
If there’s only a small expression of interest, I’ll down-grade the idea to ‘Smouldering Man’ and make it 3 days only.
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@greenfly:
Like this? http://www.kiwiburn.com
(It’s awesome. You should come).
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@rich_d_rich
Hot stuff! Thanks for that!
I’ll dust off my tinder-box tomorrow.
How far to Mangakino then… hmmmm…
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