Keep Easter Trading Laws! We need more Public Holidays – NOT LESS!

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
74
1518
‘I-have-a-dream-to-work-every-hour-of-the-day-by-a-boss-who-is-screwing-me-over’ isn’t particularly inspirational is it?

Oh shut up you goose!

National leader Christopher Luxon vows to review Easter trading laws if elected

The Easter Show has returned to Auckland after a three-year hiatus and National’s leader was there hoping he’s come up with his own show-stopper.

Christopher Luxon is vowing to review our controversial Easter trading laws if elected in six months’ time.

Christopher Luxon made an entrance and made acquaintances at Auckland’s Easter Show on Saturday.

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And with the election spinning ever closer he made an Easter promise to review the holiday’s trading laws.

“It’s something we’re definitely up for reviewing,” he said.

Trading is restricted on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And the rules depend on where you are in New Zealand because some councils have passed their own bylaws.

But even if a business can open at Easter, overarching laws still apply for example, alcohol can only be sold if the customer is having a meal.

Last year the Labour Inspectorate received 17 complaints, of which two businesses were prosecuted.

Look, the moaning from retailers that they can’t open the cash registers and worship the consumer culture of consumption over Easter bores me immensely because I’ve always believed that public holidays should be mandatory.

It’s not that I really care about the death and supposed resurrection of Jesus Christ, (good luck to anyone who wants to take their moral compass from an invisible flying wizard who sends his only son off to get nailed to a cross by his own creations), it’s that I care deeply about the need for us all to put down tools as citizens on specific days and all of us venture out into our amazing public spaces and be friendly with one another.

The importance of our civility in public towards one another, the importance of being tolerant of each other while sharing the same space and the importance to actually stop working and enjoy doing nothing but spend time with our family, friends and whanau would do more to building that sense of nationhood than any amount of debate over changing the flag could ever achieve.

As citizens, we have earned the right to have days off, and we need to hold onto this right and understand it is the universal application that is so important. It’s the need to share our beaches and out door spaces together on these days that builds bonds between families and groups of people who would never otherwise meet in their busy 9-5, 5-9 lives.

For those public servants forced to work while the rest of us play, the media should be full of ‘spare a thought for’ type stories so that our public servants who must continue to staff essential services while the rest of us relax are given the respect and admiration they deserve for their selfless functions.

That sense of self identity and nationhood that we always whine about not being present during Waitangi Day takes effort and can’t simply be left up to the ‘free market’. The space where that national identity can take shape has to be universally applied in the form of mandatory public holidays and not left to be traded in by unscrupulous employers who if given half a chance would make ‘Hi Ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go’ the new National anthem.

The thousands of different interactions generated by us all respectfully sharing the same space together on set days would do more for our understanding of each other than a million angry Talkback callers ever could.

What is the point of being a citizen in a democracy if we can’t enjoy the leisure of spending time outside in this glorious country?

Are we really all wage slaves?

Is that what a modern democracy has been denigrated too?

‘I-have-a-dream-to-work-every-hour-of-the-day-by-a-boss-who-is-screwing-me-over’ isn’t particularly inspirational is it?

Enjoy your time off this Easter – you deserve it and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!.

 

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74 COMMENTS

  1. Meh idk Martyn,

    I wanted to buy beer on Sunday and it was annoying that I couldn’t.

    That’s kind of it.

    Also they’re reviewing Easter trading laws, which is a very different thing to reviewing whether or not it’s a public holiday.

    If businesses want to open on a public holiday and pay labour 50% higher wages than they otherwise would that’s fine by me.

    When I worked retail as a student I used to love public holidays, because time and a half is great, and every day is ‘holiday-adjacent’ as a student anyway.

    • I’m with you. Keep the statutory holidays, but get rid of the restrictive laws, and treat Good Friday the same as any other state holiday, and Easter Sunday like any other Sunday.
      Christmas Day is the only day on which trading and work restrictions need to remain.
      It is dishonest of the union movement to exploit religion to preserve restrictive work practices on days that have little or no religious significance to most people.

    • Matt. When I was working the gritty holiday jobs which some folk have to do every day, we got double time on public holidays, and I volunteered to work every single one I could. Sometimes we got double time plus a day off in lieu, which is more than they get now.

      You could alway brew your own beer like chasps in my family did, as well as Auntie Iris. I once flatted above two nurses who even made their own wine and sometimes heard bottles exploding in the night, but no great harm was done. If the thirst gets too bad, maybe go to church and receive multiple communions, or just drink hand sanitiser ?

  3. Too right more extra holidays. We now have Matariki. I’m all for Eid, Vesak, Diwali, Hannuka, Spaghetti Monster Day There’s an extra weeks holiday right there. Oh and Thanks Giving Harvest Fest for the Greens. Any reason for a holiday is a good reason.Let’s do this.

  5. What is wrong with people as far as I know the world won’t end just because a shop isn’t open to cater for whims. I think it is ridiculous that shops are open all the time.

    We have the morning of anzac day
    easter Friday and Sunday
    Christmas day
    AND
    Matariki – I know Maori don’t want this to become just another shopping day.

  6. While I agree with you about public holidays easter is no more Christian than any other time of the year, it is a man-made (via a church) holiday but no basis in scripture. I think workers need a break though, so Friday & Sunday without trading should stay.
    While you are entitled to your view regarding the invisible flying wizard any sensible study of scripture will find that it promises us eternal life on a restored Earth with no problems.

  8. An uber rich cultural idiot like Luxon who earns more weekly from his rental properties than many citizens do per annum, would probably try to abolish the four seasons if he could see an advantage for the masters of the universe in doing so.

    He’s meant to be a Christian, so I refer him to Ecclesiastes 3 : 1-8. “ There is a time for everything And a season for every activity. “. One doesn’t have to be religious to appreciate the symbolism of Easter, and only a complete bloody fool would want every day like the next one, with no patterning.
    A handful of days a year when Christopher and co can’t buy beer, are zilch trade-off for others to have rare unencumbered time off and IMO he is a very selfish human being.

    Just the storybook symbolism of a bunny bringing Easter eggs is lovely for kiddies, even if the farmers of Central Otago and Canterbury think a little differently, and Luxon has no right whatsoever to start smashing time-honoured social traditions. Key was bad enough trying to change our flag, but Luxon seems worse, just as vulgar, smarmy, and a barbarian,

  9. oh FFS – communism is stateless and does not rely on a tripartite agreement with big brother for it’s days off – this sort of nonsense just perpetuates what marx warned of. everyone is dreaming bourgeoisie dreams whilst living proletariat nightmares. wake up – lol.

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