Sunday 23rd Apr 2000
Richard Prebble
Media Release -- Economy

ACT Leader Richard Prebble today said Tauranga MP Winston Peters is all talk when it comes to cleaning up the country’s shop trading laws that are today forcing Mt Maunganui shop owners to keep their doors closed to holiday makers.

Mt Maunganui retailers are among shop owners around the country who have been battling for a decade to have the shop trading laws cleaned up. Their hopes are pinned on ACT’s Shop Trading (abolition of restrictions) Bill before Parliament’s Commerce Select Committee that would put an end to the unfair anomalies in the current law.

Richard Prebble said it’s another heartbreaking Easter Sunday for Mt Maunganui retailers who are forced to stay closed while record numbers of holiday makers are in town for the long weekend. “Why are they forced to close while shops in Taupo, Whangamata and 13 other selected “resort” areas are allowed to open?” he asked.

“The local MP Winston Peters continues to rub salt into their wounds by refusing to support the Shop Trading Bill. Instead of putting politics aside and supporting the ACT Bill that offers a total solution, Winston Peters has put together an ill-thought out Bill to give local authorities the power to permit trading on public holidays,” said Richard Prebble.

“Mr Peters Bill will never make it into Parliament let alone be passed. He should stop playing games and back his local retailers by helping to get the Shop Trading Bill through Select Committee and passed in Parliament,” he said.

“There is no excuse for Winston Peters not supporting this Bill. He knows it is the solution to the Easter shop trading farce. As the local MP it is his duty to get the shop trading laws, that are costing his local economy millions of dollars, sorted out,” said Hon Richard Prebble.

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

© Scoop Media