Hide Rodney: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hide Rodney: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 February 2007. Volume:637;Page:7611. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is worth reflecting on what we are doing in this House when we debate shop trading hours. There are 121 MPs in this Parliament who are deciding on when workers can work when businesses can open and when communities can hold an event or engage in mutually advantageous capitalistic acts by trading. That is what we are deciding. 
What I do not understand is how people can stand up in this House and think that somehow they have the right to decide whether a dairy shop store or cafe should open on a particular day and that if they have some religious view it should be foisted on to a Hindu a Muslim an atheist an agnostic or a Christian who actually wants to work on that particular day. I was astonished to hear Mark Gosche quote the Catholic bishops. It is a bit rich for the Labour Party to quote Catholic bishops in favour of its argument. Then I heard people say that somehow— 
Sue Moroney 
: Some of us are Catholics. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Some woman over there who never speaks is yelling out that some of us are Catholics. I am just making the point that when the Catholic bishops— 
Russell Fairbrother 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. My friend Sue Moroney is entitled to be referred to by her proper name rather than as “some woman”. That comment may say more about the speaker than it does about Sue Moroney but this “other woman” has a name which should be used. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: If the member speaks about another member he should use the member’s correct name. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: She should identify herself before interjecting. The lady never stands up and speaks. I do not know what she is called. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Mr Hide I asked you to use the member’s name if you are going to speak of her in the way you did. I just ask you to use the member’s name. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Then I heard from people standing up that somehow if people are working it means that they are neglecting their children. What a lot of nonsense that has to be! It is the parents of the neglected children in New Zealand who do not work. That tends to be the pattern in New Zealand—there are plenty of children in homes who are totally neglected and it cannot be said that it is because their parents have to work on Easter Sunday. They do not work on any day. That is part of the problem. Darren Hughes over there is shaking his head. He should be looking to some of the statistics that are occurring in the electorate that will lose at the next election. That is what he should be doing. He should be following the arguments that are going on here about the underclass. 
The idea that parents who are doing an honest day’s work are somehow neglecting their children has to be rubbish and it shows how out of touch with the people of New Zealand this Government has become. This may come as a shock for Darren Hughes because he does not work on any day but there are a lot of people in New Zealand who have to work on Easter Sunday. That is the reality of the situation right now. They have to work. Are their children being neglected because they are working on Easter Sunday? Of course not. Who is this Darren Hughes to be telling people that they as parents should not work on an Easter Sunday if they choose to? Who is Darren Hughes to say to business owners in Wanaka—or wherever—that they should not work? I would be very interested to see if Darren Hughes votes for Steve Chadwick’s bill because what would he be saying then about the parents and that particular thing? Anyway what would Darren Hughes know about anything one asks oneself when one actually listens to him speak. 
People are scraping the bottom of the barrel to be saying that cafes cannot be opened on Easter Sunday because children’s— 
Darren Hughes 
: One percent. I didn’t take a party from 7 percent to 1 percent. The whole party took a holiday when he took over. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I like Darren Hughes! He wants to talk about the last election. How did he get on in his electorate? I ask Nathan Guy what happened. I will tell members what happened to Darren Hughes in his electorate. What was his majority? Thirty-four. How much was it? How many? It was 34. He is going to lose that seat the next election. I would be concentrating on that not on the ACT party. [ 
Interruption 
] Here is a man Darren Hughes who is sitting there getting all red in the face—I swear to heaven he has gone all red in the face—when I get up to speak. He is worried about the fact that ACT has only two MPs. If I were Darren Hughes I would be worried about his electorate because the people in it are sick of this MP not doing his job and they will vote for Nathan Guy at the next election. That is what that member should be doing and not worrying about the ACT party. I tell him that ACT will do very well at the next election—I thank Darren—with or without his help. But I ask him to keep it up because I am sure if he keeps getting red in the face someone in the Labour Party will recognise his efforts and he might get a promotion. 
Darren Hughes 
: I bet he was red in the face when he was drowning in the harbour the other day. His party drowned he drowned when he went swimming and he cannot even talk about the bill. What about people who are forced to work on that day? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I say this to Mr Hughes. If he comes along to the Tauranga ocean swimming race I will give him a race. [ 
Interruption 
] Bob Clarkson will be there. It is another feature of the Labour Party that no one is allowed to have any business open on Easter Sunday because that would be fun. People are never allowed to go dancing because that might be fun. Now Darren Hughes has got upset because on Saturday I went for a swim in the harbour. What sort of life are we going to lead under the Labour Party when they want to tell us all what to do that we cannot take any risks and that we have to check with Helen Clark before we get up in the morning? I tell Darren Hughes—that man over there—that he should get out more often and have a bit of fun. 
We should get back to the point of this speech and this bill. The point is this: a business employs people and pays their wages and it raises the money that pays the taxes to pay Darren Hughes’ wages each week—heaven knows why; to get abused—so why cannot that business and the people it employs and the community in which those people work decide whether to open or close on any day they choose on any part of the year? Why cannot people decide for themselves whether they want to go shopping on Easter Sunday? Why cannot we leave it up to them? Why do we think it is only people like Darren Hughes who have the moral and intellectual development to decide for people whether they can work open their shop or do their business? 
I say we vote for this bill and the other bill like it because I believe in the freedom of New Zealanders and I trust them to make decisions for themselves their businesses and their families that are a whole lot better than those Darren Hughes ever could make. Thank you.