Robertson Grant: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9457. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) on behalf ofDr David Clark (Labour—Dunedin North): I moveThat the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. As many colleagues around the House will know Dr David Clark is on an Eisenhower Fellowship in the United States of America. He has asked me to step in and do this third reading. I am very happy to do so because this bill the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill was in the members’ ballot originally under my name—and there is no truth to the rumour that I ordered Dr Clark away from the building so I could do this. This bill is one that was also in Darien Fenton’s name for a period of time and I am very pleased that the Labour caucus’ members who were involved in the original drafting of the bill will now have the opportunity to speak on it.At the very outset I would like to thank the parties that have supported this bill right from its first reading—the Green Party New Zealand First the Māori Party Mana United Future and Brendan Horan. The support of all of those parties and MPs is much appreciated. All of those parties have taken this bill as a point of principle and I thank them very much for sticking to their principles on this issue.The origins of the bill were in 2010 when both Anzac Day and Waitangi Day fell on weekends and there was no holiday on Monday for either of them. That year New Zealanders got only nine of the 11 public holidays that they are entitled to under the Holidays Act. That is not fair and this bill seeks to give hard-working New Zealanders a fair go—time to spend with their families and to continue to commemorate these important days in our calendar 7 years out of 7.We do need to recognise the value of holidays to working people and indeed to businesses. Holidays are about recharging. They are about spending time with families about enjoying recreation and downtime. They are actually very important for productivity for good morale in the workplace. That is what holidays are for. They are not things that should be begrudged by the Government; they are things that should be supported by the Government.It is important to note that this bill does recognise the importance and significance of these 2 days to New Zealanders. Waitangi Day is our national day and as David Shearer and others have stated we need to continue to work to ensure that it is both a day of reflection on our past and present and a celebration of what we have and what we can become. Anzac Day assumes a greater significance every year in our country. It does note our coming of age as a nation on the battlefields of World War I and thesacrifice of New Zealanders then and in other conflicts that have followed. It is a day of commemoration that we hold dear and that grows in importance every single year.Next Thursday we will commemorate Anzac Day and thousands and thousands of New Zealanders around the country will go out to do this at Dawn Services at community services right around the country. That is important. It will also be a holiday. It will not diminish the day at all as it has not done in past years. The same will now be the case as a result of this bill when the day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday.Let me be absolutely clear. The commemorations of Anzac Day and Waitangi Day will continue to be on 25 April and 6 February every year as they should be but there will be a holiday every 7 out of 7 years not just 5 out of 7 years. This is already the way that things are done in most of the states of Australia—in Western Australia Victoria ACT New South Wales South Australia Queensland and the Northern Territory. All of them have—Hon Annette King: Do they care about Anzac Day?GRANT ROBERTSON: That is right. As my colleague says: “Do they care about Anzac Day?”. You bet they do. The reports from Australia where the Mondayisation process is in place indicate that the numbers of people attending Anzac Day services are increasing year on year. It is also what we do for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and there is no confusion. If Christmas Day falls on a Saturday the presents are opened people attend church services and the only change is that the day after Boxing Day we get a holiday for it. That is what will happen in this case.So workers support this bill in large numbers but so do many businesses. They recognise the value of holidays for their workers. They also know that the cost of this bill is not huge. It is already dealt with and budgeted for by businesses 5 out of 7 years and it is simply a matter of making that 7 out of 7 years. In previous calls I have noted the work that David Farrar the National Party’s pollster has done. He has said that this represents 0.12 percent of an annual wage bill. I want to actually congratulate Mr Farrar. It is a pity he was not able to influence the National Party with his support for this bill but employers across the board have been coming forward and supporting this legislation. I particularly want to acknowledge the Tourism Industry Association which has strongly supported this bill. In its submission to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee it said that any costs associated with this bill will be outweighed by the overall economic benefit. That is a statement from the Tourism Industry Association that can be applied right across the board. Real economic benefits will occur as a result of this legislation.Unfortunately with all of the parties that I have mentioned for whose support we are grateful the National Party has yet to come around to supporting this bill. Well it is not too late. It is not too late for the National Party to come on board get on the right side of history and get on the right side of the other parties in this Parliament. I have got no hope for John Banks by the way. I am not asking for him to come on board with it but there is a chance for the National Party to come on board today and say: “We support workers. We support workers having the ability to spend more time with their families.”But the track record does not look good in terms of bringing them across because every time legislation that gives more holidays to workers comes up in this House the National Party opposes it. When the 4 weeks’ annual leave came in the sky did not fall in. Nothing happened that went wrong there. Business productivity and profits went up after the 4 weeks’ annual leave came in but the National Party still opposed it. But it is not too late. National can come in and say that its commitment to supporting families actually has some reality that it is prepared to back a piece of legislation that is going to make sure that people have more time with their families.But the National Party’s criticisms of this bill have ranged. They have ranged from the fact that this is the end of civilisation as we know it through to: “Why are you bothering? It doesn’t make any difference.” The National Party needs to get a consistent stance on that. But in the end it has the chance today to get on to the right side of history and vote for this legislation. Many people have asked when this provision will next come into effect. The next time that this will happen is on 25 April 2015 when Anzac Day will fall on a Saturday the following year Waitangi Day will fall on a Saturday and then in 4 and 5-year gaps after that.We on this side of the House are not pretending that this is the big issue in industrial relations. We are not saying that. What we are saying is here is an opportunity to do something. Here is an opportunity to give New Zealanders a fair go. Here is an opportunity to give New Zealanders some more time with their families. It is not the biggest thing in the world in industrial relations but it is important. It represents an important principle—that people deserve to have holidays; that those holidays in the law 11 public holidays should be granted.We know that there are bigger issues out there for workers—the loss of thousands of jobs wages not keeping pace with the cost of living precarious work and the coming changes to employment law from this Government. These are all big issues and they are ones we need to be working on. This bill is not on that scale but it can do a simple thing for workers. It can give them a fair go it can give them time with their families and it continues to ensure that we commemorate these important days in our calendar. This is a fine bill and I have great pleasure in commending it to the House.