Air show could be centre of Easter trading row

Wanaka's air show could be the next battleground over Easter trading, the Retailers' Association said today.

The Warbirds Over Wanaka air show, held every two years, attracted about 70,000 visitors during Easter 2004 and will be held again at Easter 2006.

Some Wanaka business people said last year they were thinking of changing the name of their central business district to avoid penalties for trading on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

"I have a feeling that the issue may well come to the fore in a different way at Easter 2006, in that the pressure will build in Wanaka rather than in Rotorua and Tauranga as it did this Easter," Retailers' Association spokesman Barry Hellberg told NZPA today.

"I think whoever is the MP down there will have quite a challenge on their hands."

The law allows retail outlets in tourist towns Taupo and Queenstown to open, but not shops in Rotorua or Wanaka.

This year, almost 90 of the 169 businesses under investigation for suspected illegal trading over Easter were in Rotorua, which staged the Jambalaya dance and music festival.

Last Easter only 53 shops nationwide were investigated for illegal trading.

Allowances in the law to obtain trading exemptions or regional variations for things such as cruise boats coming to Tauranga could be described as "a dog's breakfast", Mr Hellberg said.

Changes in zoning and usage of land had not been taken into account.

Mr Hellberg said the Retailers' Association supported businesses being allowed to open on Easter Sunday, but not Good Friday, Christmas Day or Anzac Day morning.

"The law is a mess," he said. "There is an inability to deal administratively with any of the historic anachronisms that remain over Sunday trading."

Shop trading hours were last changed in 1990. Until then, a tribunal handled applications for retail variations, Mr Hellberg said.

There is no longer a tribunal available.

The Shop Trading Hours Act makes Good Friday and Easter Sunday exceptions for dairies, petrol stations, restaurants and takeaway bars, souvenir shops and pharmacies.

Garden centres are permitted to open on Easter Sunday but not on Good Friday.

A total of 41 businesses, including five in Wanaka, were prosecuted under the legislation last year, the Labour Department said.

Mr Hellberg said that in the last year, Parliament had thrown out moves to "liberate" Easter Sunday.

"While there's no way any changes will happen in this parliamentary term, I suspect next time you will have members again seeking changes in rural areas," he said.

Many retailers would continue to open and risk a maximum $1000 fine.

"The issue will not die -- retailers have been frustrated for a number of years and there will be retailers who will open regardless of the law."

- NZPA