MEDIA RELEASE
6 March 2001
For immediate release
PARLIAMENT DISREGARDS DEMOCRACY- PETERS
“The manner in which my two Supplementary Order Papers tabled to amend the Shop Trading Hours Repeal Amendment Bill last
night were treated by the Government and their appointed Chairperson of the Committee of the House, was nothing less
than shameful party politics”, claimed New Zealand First Leader and Member for Tauranga, Rt Hon Winston Peters today.
“I have been trying for several years to have the injustices that have prevented retail outlets in towns and cities such
as Tauranga and Mount Maunganui and other locations throughout New Zealand from trading during the Easter holiday period
addressed”, he said.
“I have had a Private Members Bill prepared and in the ballot for drawing, since early 1999 and I have constantly
championed the cause for retail merchants to have the opportunity to service the growing demand of visitors and locals
alike during the Easter holiday period.
The Bill entitled the Shop Trading Hours Repeal Amendment Bill, advanced by the Labour Government, provided an ideal
opportunity to extend the provisions they were seeking to amend from one of simply addressing the issue for garden
centres, to shops per se. To have my suggested amendment tossed aside in the manner they were, displaying scant regard
for the concerns of a large cross section of our communities, without even the courtesy of discussion on what must
surely be the most spurious grounds ever used to justify such a decision, was shameful and sickening”, Mr Peters
claimed.
“The Chairperson, no doubt with the concurrence of the Clerk, and the Attorney General, declared my SOPs to be outside
the scope of the Bill because my suggestions went beyond garden centres to include shops. The absolute absurdity of that
decision is glaringly obvious. The name of the Bill was the SHOP TRADING HOURS REPEAL AMENDMENT BILL! It was not the
garden centres trading hours repeal amendment Bill!.
In any event, Parliament could have given leave for these amendments to be considered, as after all Parliament is the
master of it’s own destiny, but the Labour Party never intended to satisfy the needs of Tauranga or Mount Maunganui
people or their requests.
I have been treated with ignorance, with anger and disrespect in Parliament in the past but have never experienced
before this level of bizarre behaviour said Mr Peters.
“I intend to raise this matter again when the Parliament reconvenes after the current recess and demand a full
explanation”, Mr Peters concluded.
ENDS