Ross Jami-Lee: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3488. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 I am happy to stand and speak in opposition to this bill the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill. I am happy to stand and speak in opposition to this bill because the National Party knows that there are hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders out there who care very much about Waitangi Day and who care very much about Anzac Day. They care about the importance of those days to this nation. They do not see those days just as holidays. They see those days as being important days to recognise the people who have gone before in this country to recognise the founders of this country who put together the Treaty of Waitangi to allow New Zealand to be the country that it is today and to recognise the people who went to war for New Zealanders to have freedoms that we exercise every day in this nation. We as the National Party believe that that is the importance of those days. It is about recognising why we have those days not viewing them just as holidays. 
I think it is fair to say that we do have a very generous number of holidays in New Zealand. We have a generous number of holidays in New Zealand. Some people think that these two holidays which we care so much about in this country should be Mondayised which would one come at quite a cost to the country whenever they come around and two reduce the meaning of the days by treating them as just normal holidays. I think a bill that does that is a disgrace and should be opposed. 
I want to talk a bit more about the cost there would be for the country should this bill go ahead. The Department of Labour has calculated that every time there is a holiday that is Mondayised there is an economic cost to the country of roughly $200 million. What we are hearing from members on the other side is that they do not care whether there is an extra $200 million worth of cost put on New Zealand businesses. We know that they do not support our economic growth programme. We know that they do not support our labour market reforms which will actually create more jobs. We know that they did not support our 90-day trial which created 13000 new jobs. And one of the reasons why we are seeing more jobs being created is that we are seeing less cost put on to businesses. We are seeing less red tape. We are seeing less regulation being put on businesses. An extra $200 million is not to be laughed at—it is an extra $200 million cost to the economy. 
This bill should be opposed for some very good reasons. We as New Zealanders care about Waitangi Day. We as New Zealanders believe that the people who went to war to give us freedoms in this country should be respected and not have their day trampled on by the Mondayisation that this bill would bring about. And we believe we should be keeping costs off businesses and $200 million every time these days are Mondayised is $200 million too much. The National Party takes pride in opposing this bill for the reasons I have outlined tonight.