Brian Rudman: Another attempt to get rid of Easter trading ban

Another Easter and another member of Parliament trying to boost his profile with a bill to open up shop trading on Easter Sunday. This year it's newbie National MP Todd McClay, from Rotorua, who follows in the footsteps of his Labour predecessor, Steve Chadwick.

Such bills have become as much a ritual of the Kiwi Easter as chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and stern statements from the Department of Labour about the $1000 fines all but a few privileged shopkeepers face if they dare open on Easter Friday or Sunday.

Mr McClay's is the 10th attempt to amend the Easter trading law since the present law came into force in 1990. With both major parties too chicken to stand up to the high priests of Christianity and organised labour on this, it's a fair bet this bill will be as unsuccessful as the others.

Chances are we'll survive the setback. As one so ancient, I can recall the days when shops were closed every Saturday and Sunday; the fact I can't go to buy a widescreen TV on Easter Friday or Sunday, or on Christmas Day and Anzac Day morning, is hardly going to get me out waving flags of protests.

That said, it is hard to defend retaining these vestigial remnants of the bad old days. Even the token gesture of respecting Christianity's three holiest days is wearing a little thin when a recent poll by Massey University social scientists reveals that only 53 per cent of New Zealanders believe in a God of any denomination - and of those, half either had their doubts or believed in God "some of the time, but not at others".

Which of course raises the awkward question of why we should be stopping work to celebrate Christian festivals when, according to the Massey researchers, only 35 per cent of us describe ourselves as "religious".

I guess the smart answer to that is our ancestors were downing their tools and celebrating at these times of the year long before the ancient Christians turned up and hijacked the festivities for their own purposes, so why stop now?

The awful, sleepy weekends I grew up in were the result of labour laws brought in at the end of World War II to guarantee workers a five-day, 40-hour work week. Until 1980 you could buy only "approved goods" over the weekend, and then only in "emergencies". In 1955, there were just 61 such items. By 1975, this had exploded to a decadent 141.

In 1980, Saturday trading was finally restored and in 1990, seven-day, 24-hour shopping was allowed, apart from the three token Christian days and the morning of Anzac Day.

But it wasn't that simple. Carried over from previous legislation in 1990 was the right of 15 tourist hotspots to ignore some parts of these prohibitions. This created anomalies, allowing the Auckland suburb of Parnell to open on Easter Sunday but not neighbouring Newmarket. Taupo could open, but not Rotorua.

What was worse for those outside the lucky 15, the legislation to create further exemptions was abolished. Also allowed to open were shops selling "essential" items - including cooked food but not raw or fresh produce - pharmacies and souvenir shops.

In 1991, widespread civil disobedience by garden shops rewarded them with a law change allowing them to open on Easter Sunday - but not Good Friday - which meant you could buy potting mix on the church's most holy day, but still not a Bible or a recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion.

This time last year, 64 per cent of those polled by Research New Zealand supported the current bans on Easter trading. The unions are also against further liberalisation, as are many shopkeepers, if the 73 per cent opposition in an email poll of Newmarket shopkeepers last year is any indication.

What does seem to irritate many are the anomalies the historic exemptions have created.

But as I can't imagine any parliamentarian voting to remove the exemptions, the simple solution does seem to be to remove all restrictions and be done with it.