KEY POINTS:
The opposition of Newmarket shopkeepers to Easter Sunday trading just highlights the nightmare facing parliamentarians wanting to sort out the mess.
Public submissions on a government discussion document on the vexed issue close on Friday, but if the confusion in Newmarket is representative of the wider response, don't
expect change any time soon.
On the one hand you've got Cameron Brewer, head of the Newmarket Business Association, stamping his rightwing foot in a press statement demanding that Parliament "sort out the annual Easter circus which sees the likes of Parnell allowed to trade on Easter Sunday because it has got an historic exemption". He adds: "We've always argued that Parliament needs to sort out the current inconsistencies, and we will be reiterating that in our submission."
But in the same document he reports a snap poll revealing that "about three-quarters" of the retailers in "Auckland's leading shopping precinct" are against the law being liberalised to allow Newmarket to open on Easter Sunday.
Now maybe I'm missing something, but if Newmarket traders don't want to sort out present inconsistencies by opening the Easter Sunday market to allcomers, the only other way, it seems to me, is to remove all existing exemptions. That is, extend the shopping ban to their Parnell rivals.
But I doubt that will go down well with Mr Brewer's Act Party mates like Rodney Hide, who have for years been leading the parliamentary charge for further liberalisation.
Indeed Mr Brewer sounds positively cloth cap when he says "some retailers believe if Easter Sunday goes, then it will be Good Friday, Christmas Day and Anzac Day morning [as well]".
As someone who grew up in the bad old days when shops were closed all weekend, I can't get too worked up about the drive to liberate these final 3 1/2 non-shopping days. For all I care, let them stand as a reminder of the bad old days. The old weekend ban was not to protect the shopkeepers' free weekend, as the Newmarket traders are now trying to preserve, but was part of labour laws guaranteeing shop workers a five day, 40-hour week.
Between 1945 and 1980, you could only buy "approved goods" over the weekend in "emergencies". There was even a special committee to decide which items belonged on the list. In 1955 there were just 61 items. By 1975 this had grown to 141.
In 1980, Saturday shopping made a comeback. In 1990, we were allowed to shop round the clock, seven days a week, except for the three major Christian holy days - and half of Anzac Day.
But as with all bans, there are exemptions, which have given rise to silly anomalies. Some tourist towns, Queenstown and Taupo for instance, can trade, but Wanaka and Rotorua cannot.
Thanks to a 2001 law amendment, I can now buy plants at a garden shop on Easter Sunday but not on Good Friday. But woe betide my local bookshop if it sold me a Bible on these sacred days.
As for food, we can't shop at supermarkets, but we can buy the same items at a marked-up price at the dairy or service station because they are considered vendors of an "essential service". Alternatively, you can dine out at a restaurant. You can even buy alcohol at said restaurant, but not at a bottle store.
If desperate, you can buy wine - both fruit and grape - on Easter Sunday direct from the wine maker, or the vineyard where the grapes came from.
If recent history is any guide, I suspect little is likely to change. As the discussion document points out, there have been nine attempts to clear up these anomalies in the shop-trading legislation since the 1990 Act became law. In all cases, except in 2001 when garden centres were allowed to trade on Easter Sunday, Parliament voted not to change the restrictions.
With the maximum penalty being a $1000 fine, a side effect is the law is being treated as an ass. The report notes, "given the number of convictions that result in discharge without a fine, the courts are effectively sending the message that they do not consider breaches of the shop-trading restrictions to be a serious matter."
Most of us would agree.