A bill that would have allowed shops to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday was defeated 84-37 on its second reading in Parliament last night.
The member's bill was drafted by National's Otago MP Jacqui Dean, and when it was introduced in May last year it provided for limited opening hours from 10am to 5pm in two places in the country, Wanaka and Tauranga.
A select committee changed it to unrestricted opening hours across the whole country.
Another bill to change Easter Trading laws has just started its second reading debate.
It is also a member's bill, promoted by Labour's Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick.
Her bill would allow local authorities to decide whether shops in their area could open on Easter Sunday only.
Both bills are subject to conscience votes.
They could not both be passed because they contradict each other. Ms Chadwick's is thought to have a better chance.
The second reading debate is expected to finish on May 16, when a vote will be taken.
Unions and churches oppose both the bills.
The National Distribution Union (NDU) said last night the defeat of Ms Deans' bill was a "positive sign".
"Parliament has rejected the immediate liberalisation of shop trading at Easter," said NDU national secretary Laila Harre.
"It now needs to reject the slow burning Chadwick bill which would hand the power to local councils."
Ms Harre said while the union was willing to look at ways in which exceptions to the general prohibition on opening at Easter could be modernised, neither of the bills were suitable platforms to do this.
"There is plenty of time between now and next Easter to develop an exemption process which is consistent with the original intention of exemptions - which was to ensure that trading should be the exception rather than the rule," she said.
"It's time that retail workers, the people who will be most directly affected, to have their collective voice heard."
