“James

Let me ask you again, are you in favour of making Easter Sunday a compulsory working day?”

I say if people want to work on that day….or choose not to and organise their lives to suit their choice then go for it.Compulsion is irrelavant….thats your thing fascist.

“Thought not, now take your extreme ideology and fuck off, you would not know freedom if it bit you in the arse.”

Im advocating real freedom that applys to everyone concerned…you are advocating State backed privilege for some by violating the rights of others to THEIR freedom.In a free society no-one gets to employ the states gun against others for their own benefit.What IS the difference between you and the leftys then Bruv?Take YOUR socialist ideology and fuck off and stop shitting on the memory of our war dead.

“P.S, have you paid me back for the cost of your university education?”

Never had one….I went to work at 17 and have haven’t stopped since.I’ve had fuck all sick days and bugger all back in State services generally.NZ owes me quite a debt…..financial and moral ……if I choose to collect.

Let me ask you again, are you in favour of making Easter Sunday a compulsory working day?

Thought not, now take your extreme ideology and fuck off, you would not know freedom if it bit you in the arse.

P.S, have you paid me back for the cost of your university education?

Heres the real point again….Its not YOUR lives or property to decide upon….its OTHER peoples…get it? Don’t like what they are doing?Then don’t deal with them….make your own choices with whats yours but don’t whine all year about socialism then about turn and support it on this issue…..you just become hypocrites in everyones eyes.

So why did this mean Labour MPs block voted? Simple. The national secretary of NZ’s largest union is the chair of Labour’s list ranking committee.

Another reason we need to remember when we’re asked whether we want to retain MMP. Yet didn’t a recent poll on this site produce a result overwhelmingly in its favour?

MMP handed to party leaders and a few shadowy unelected “officials” complete power over our Parliamentary democracy. MPs ought to be answerable first to an electorate and then to party (if we must have parties at all). MMP reverses that.

Let’s be rid of it, and rid of this sort of corruption.

As a mother of three young children myself and an MP, I am acutely aware of the stresses and strains that long working hours can have on family life.

Thanks for your comments Katrina. The reason so many NZ’ers have to work long hours is because NZ is slipping behind economically, and we’re becoming relatively poorer. There’s no hiding in a globalised world. As we become poorer, everything becomes more expensive, including products made in NZ.

If you’re concerned for future of New Zealand, I implore you to hold John Key and Bill English to account on the 2025 target. They’ve dismissed the ideas of Don Brash and his panel, yet have offered none of their own.

Economic growth is the single biggest issue for NZ and we can’t afford another two terms of inaction.

Thank you.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday in my opinion is part of the fabric of New Zealand life and should be respected as commercial free days.

I don’t see why we can’t get a break from commercials either, if only briefly. It’s good to have a rest from the onslaught. But this should mean excluding network self promotion commercials too. These ruin what could be a brief respite so they are more annoying than regular commercials, they are advertising themselves so I don’t see how they get away with it. And they don’t work, if they turn me off I turn them off.

I find quotes like this:
“funny how all those who hate nanny state and interference are perfectly happy to interfere when it suits them.”

Highly amusing. It is you guys who think its fine the govt can take a third of our earnings off us to support sludge like philu, tell us how to parent, what to think, what to eat, etc etc.
Yet you give yourselves a great pat on the back for supporting holiday trading, saying that the state should not decide when an employee can work or not. What great, pure right-wingers you all are!

The fact is that employee’s will not get a ‘choice’ to work these days; they will be forced or coerced some way or another.
FFS, its 2 or 3 days a year.

Couldn’t disagree with you more DPF. My goodness your usual rant about Easter trading is starting early this year. We are not even at Christmas yet.

I think we should pay more attention to community life and doing things together and respecting those traditions of the past that have helped to form the nation we are today. Good Friday and Easter Sunday in my opinion is part of the fabric of New Zealand life and should be respected as commercial free days.

Once more I find myself in agreement with Pete George on an issue. That’s twice in two days Pete.

LOL!

I posted the same sentiments last Easter and received nothing but abuse from you.

[DPF: Katrina is an MP. I am a fan of MPs explaining in public why they voted - especially on a site that was critical of that vote.

I didn't say I agreed with Katrina's reasons. I don't. I was encouraging the practice of MPs being public about why they voted]

You need to take a course in statutory interpretation.

The subsection you cite does not mean what you are asserting it means. Look to section s79(2)(c) which actually makes the views of those effected a “relevant consideration” which is really a statutory codification of administrative law.

And actually s78 it would have no effect on duties to consult that come from the wellspring of common law. That’s the plain reading of it.

I repeat if the Council didn’t use statutory provisions for consultation it would still be under common law duties to do so. The specific Bill on shop trading liberation would not need any addition duty to consult for there to be one either under the LGA or common law.

But the bottomline question is this: if Councils are to be charged with planning for my entire lifecycle to be spent living in a concrete apartment block and travelling no further than walking distance of where I live now (smart growth), why are they not trusted to determine shop trading hours in my walkable community after community input? Hell that’s an easy transaction compared to the one the Greens want Councils to perform.

“Most people are programed to live with imposed restrictions.”

Thats the problem in a nutshell.

as for the student whining he cant make extra money – who cares?? you get enough hand outs. if ya need money THAT bad, suck a dick! swing round a brass pole! theres always ways to make a bit extra

?

I was one of the few National MPs who voted against the bill.

I did so for the following reasons. Family time is a precious commodity these days and continual pressure on retailers to open longer hours, has IMO already seriously eroded the time working parents can spend with their children.

As a mother of three young children myself and an MP, I am acutely aware of the stresses and strains that long working hours can have on family life.

There are currently only three and a half days when New Zealanders are unable to shop, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Anzac Day morning. These days reflect the special character of our society. Ensuring that they remain “commerce free” is I believe an important step in helping to strengthen family relationships.

I have had a number of emails to my office this morning thanking me for my “independence over this issue” and for taking a “good sense and family-minded stance”

By the way I note that Ohariu’s Peter Dunne voted for Easter Sunday trading while Labour’s Charles Chauvel, also based in Ohariu voted for against it.

[DPF: Kudos for posting here to explain your position. Big ups]

Chris Diack at 11:31 am
If ppl are addicted to spending on consumer items then they have to learn self control. Like every other self controlled addict who must resist their nectar everyday.

But they don’t. Add to that the gambling addiction, the violence addiction, the stealing addiction. If it was possible for everyone and every company to have complete freedom society would be a much bigger mess than it is now, while it lasted.

Most people are programed to live with imposed restrictions.

as soon as one opens, the rest follow.

look at car yards opening on a sunday. a few started, the rest quickly followed. course, the owners rarely work sundays.

________________________________________________________________________________

as for the student whining he cant make extra money – who cares?? you get enough hand outs. if ya need money THAT bad, suck a dick! swing round a brass pole! theres always ways to make a bit extra

Read section 78 of the Local Government Act, Chris.

3) A local authority is not required by this section alone to undertake any consultation process or procedure.

That over-rides any common law duty there may be to consult, and McClay’s Bill contained no proposed statutory requirement to consult in the case of Easter Sunday trading. Ideally, it should have required the consultative process under section 83 of the LGA to be invoked.

Oh yes!, all the staff forced to work on Easter Sunday would much rather have the ‘cruisiest day’ at work than be at home having a day off.

Yeah right!