Submission November 18th
NZ Chamber of Commerce makes case for easing of Easter shopping restrictions….
18 November 2005
All 31 New Zealand Chamber supported a remit at this months National Convention to support changes to Easter shopping regulations.
The New Zealand Chambers of Commerce followed up by making a presentation to the Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel, who attended the confrence, by giving total support to a campaign held through the Wanaka Chamber of Commerce’s business community for an easing of the Easter shopping restrictions.
The Minister conceded that Wanaka retailers were disadvantaged in not being able to open over the Easter period, while they could in nearby Queenstown and other holiday towns such as Russell in the Bay of Islands.
While Minister Dalziel expressed concern at the direction of Chamber advocacy for unrestricted shopping hours, she did agreed that the current arrangements allowing exceptions to some towns and not others on regulations stating when shops must close was unfair and inequitable.
I would seem that our key point that ‘there is no level playing field’ on shopping hours between different cities and towns and that this needs to be fixed, was sympathetically received by the Minister
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