Battle over Easter trading continues

Easter may have come and gone but the longstanding battle to get the Government to change its policy on Easter Sunday trading is heating up again.

Retail Rotorua co-ordinator Scotty Watson says he intends to mobilise a region-wide campaign to get the country's MPs to throw out the "outdated and discriminatory" legislation that allows some towns such as Taupo and Queenstown to open on Easter Sunday, while others like Rotorua cannot.

He called for all the mayors in the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato, together with Chambers of Commerce, main street organisations and tourist organisations to pull together to tell the Government 'this is what we want'.

"If all those people can join forces then it would make a hell of a strong submission if we say, 'These are the changes you need to make, or we will just go ahead and open anyway. Get used to the idea.'"

Mr Watson said he would be watching closely how Wanaka Paper Plus owner Brian Kreft would fare in a bid to quash his conviction for trading on Easter Sunday last year.

"He went to appeal on the grounds of discrimination, that it was Wanaka being discriminated against when shop owners in nearby Queenstown were allowed to open," he said.

Mr Watson said the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce would host a series of breakfasts over coming months in which the major political parties would be represented and he would use these to quiz party candidates over where they stood on the issue.

"People throughout New Zealand are getting sick to death of the whole thing."

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)