P.M. ‘breaking one of his own rules’

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 3

P.M. ‘breaking one of his own rules’

By

PETER LUKE in Wellington

The Opposition Leader, Mr Bolger, has accused the Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, of breaking one of his own rules to rush in Sunday trading. “He has lectured everyone else about the evils of Government by regulation. Now he is using regulation to introduce Sunday trading “before he gets around to amending the Shop Trading Hours Act.” Mr Bolger made it clear that he was a liberal on the issue of Sunday trading itself, but that it required the whole approach to hours and conditions of employment in retailing to be reconsidered. These issues should have been worked through the normal legislative process, said Mr Bolger, who suggested the move was a reaction to suggestions the Government had lost its momentum. The Opposition’s tourism spokesman, Mr Warren Cooper, said changes to shop trading hours had to be complemented with “an attack” on week-end penalty rates. : “Agreements which abolish week-end penalty rates in return for a fair pay rise need to be negotiated,” he said. The Democrats and New Labour have slated the extension to trading hours. New Labour’s Auckland convener, Mr Phil Amos, said retailers’ next move would be an attempt to do away with penal rates.

Mothers would have to find week-end childcare, and those unable to work Sundays and extended hours would be denied employment. Mr Amos claimed prices would have to rise per cent to meet the extra overheads of a seven-day week. The Democratic Party’s leader, Mr Garry Knapp, said the move was a “kneejerk reaction to the whims of big business.” - Most small retailers did not want New Zealand’s unique atmosphere to be destroyed by Sunday trading, he said. The Catholic Church, the Salvation Army and the Keep Sunday Free group yesterday declared their opposition to Sunday shopping. Cardinal Thomas Williams denounced the plan as a victory of powerful interest groups over the people’s day, Sunday. “The issue is far from a religious one. If profit is to take priority over people, the outcome will be a society less human and more stressful for individual families and the community at large,” he said. The Salvation Army agreed, saying seven-day-a-week shopping would further erode New Zealanders’ “already beleaguered family life.”