Easter is the time when Kiwis face confused and confusing rules about what can open, when, and where. Photo / NZME
Easter is the time when Kiwis face confused and confusing rules about what can open, when, and where. Photo / NZME
OPINION:
Children young (and not so young) love this time of year. It's full of memories of delicately peeling back brightly coloured tinfoil, trying not to tear it, and facing that heartbreaking yet delicious dilemma – should the bunny's ears or feet be eaten first? The correct answer is, of course, the ears.
It's the smell of butter melting on a warmly toasted hot crossed bun, the joy of children intently searching to find individually wrapped eggs hidden in the park, and the gift-giving of chocolate that makes Easter a delight.
It's easy to forget that this holiday has religious significance. Like Christmas, it's a celebration of Jesus' life and tells a story of hope, but there's no catchy songs on the radio like "O Holy Night" and shop fronts are much less likely to promote Easter's equivalent to the nativity scene.
They're both holidays in the sense of "holy days" but Easter is about family time as much as religious observance.
But it's also the time when we face some of the oddest government rules. Confused and confusing regulations about what can open when, and even where.
Those of us who wanted to head out for a quick drink last Friday couldn't, and then we could on Saturday, and then we couldn't again on Easter Sunday. And that was just the beginning of the baffling Easter trading laws we were subjected to.
On-licence premises could only serve alcohol if you were there for a meal. But there are strict rules and timeframes about what constitutes "a meal". A glass of wine with a salad is okay, but a beer with a bowl of fries? Nope. Not at Easter. Hospitality staff, who've had a hard enough time as it is lately, spent much of Easter telling customers when they can drink, how long they had to drink it, how much they're required to eat, and what.
The madness is not restricted to alcohol, though. There's no logic about what you can and can't trim, whether it's your fringe or your hedge.
Hairdressers could open to cut hair but weren't allowed to sell their shampoos to the recently sheared.
Homeowners looking to refresh their garden over the long weekend and plant before winter couldn't head to the garden centre on Good Friday.
And it gets more confusing. Other stores might have been allowed to open depending on which of New Zealand's 67 Territorial Local Authorities you live in.
Tourist towns have opted to open, and others haven't. The Government has a website with links to each council, so that business owners can at least try to find out what the local rules are. How on earth did we get here, and why has nobody fixed it?
New Zealand used to be closed for business on Easter Sunday until 2016 when John Key pushed through a new law to liberalise Easter trading rules. It was a noble try, but instead of saying "these are the rules for New Zealand," it effectively said, "the rules are that each council makes its own rules."
New Zealand used to be closed for business on Easter Sunday until 2016 when John Key pushed through the new law. Photo / Getty Images
It means a family on a road trip may be able to stop for snacks at a supermarket in Whangarei, but just south of the border Auckland Council forces their supermarkets to keep their doors shut.
All of this, and people wonder why we have a problem with productivity in this country. Every law from Parliament has made the world more complex and bureaucratic. Even a law that was supposed to bring clarity made things worse.
Act's Chris Baillie has a Member's Bill to simplify business at Easter. All businesses should be allowed to determine which days they would like to open. Easter Friday and Sunday would be normal trading days.
This law would keep a very important protection, though. If workers don't want to work those days, they don't have to.
It's pretty simple, and it should have been done years ago. Have Easter your way. If you want to worship, good on you. If gardening is your God, then your local gardening centre can open.
New Zealand is a modern, multi-ethnic democracy where people come with many faiths and backgrounds. We should be able to choose if we'd like to spend the weekend at church reflecting, with family gorging on chocolate, or working through for time and a half.
We're also a country that needs to spend less time beholden to bureaucrats and more time making the most of our futures.
If we can't get something as simple as Easter trading laws straight, then no wonder we struggle with the big stuff. What are our chances of dealing to crime, truancy, and getting enough houses built if we sweat the small stuff year after year?
Let's make the rules consistent across the country. If the Easter bunny's vast operation has the flexibility to work Sunday, so should all New Zealand businesses.
• Brooke van Velden is the deputy leader of the Act Party
