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A CROSS WE BEAR

One thing that really gets my goat is the way that we are increasingly over-governed both at a federal and state level.

Freedom of choice seems to be shrinking. Time and again governments tell us that they know what’s good for us.

And the latest example in Victoria is a classic example. A case of a government telling you how to spend your time. Specifically Easter.

They are bringing in legislation to ban trading on Easter Sunday. Welcome to the 1950s.

It’s almost a rerun of the Frank Penhalluriack hardware store battles in the early 1980s.

Back then they were legalising prostitution and cracking down on hardware stores on Sundays -- the day when most handymen would find they had run out of nails.

I remember saying “You can get a screw on Sunday but you can’t get a screwdriver.”

But back to Easter Sunday. What about the separation of Church and state? And I am not just saying this because I am an atheist.

The majority of people in Victoria are not practising Christians. They may nominally be on their census forms but churches are hardly overflowing.

And to make it even more ludicrous this sanctity of Easter Sunday is selective. Milk bars can open and so can service stations and food outlets and chemist shops.

And to add to the hypocrisy they are going to close cinemas on Easter Sunday but the “ hands off” policy on the big revenue Crown casino means an exemption for gamblers.

And that other religion AFL football is also exempt.

Why not let shopkeepers make up their own minds? If you want to open then open. You want to shut up shop for the whole of Easter that’s your decision?

As I understand it Easter Sunday is a busy day for retailers. Many people have already had Good Friday off and Easter Saturday – which will now be decreed an official public holiday – and by Easter Sunday the shopping centres are looking pretty inviting.

It is wrong. It is forcing something on us. It is a step back to the days when nothing was open on a Sunday except the back door.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2002