Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): It is a great pleasure to participate in the Committee stage of the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill. As I have mentioned in the earlier debates on the bill the current rules governing shop trading on Easter Sunday are outdated and rather unfair on certain businesses and regions. Just before I start talking about the bill I just want to remind members that Easter Sunday is not actually a public holiday. Just because some members in this Committee actually pretend as if it is and say that it is unfair that we are trying to get rid of a public holiday that everyone enjoys it is actually a mistake that they are making. It is not a public holiday and telling the public that it is so does not make it so. It is actually a restricted trading day and what we are trying to do is to make it even for everyone around the country. For example in some places in this country Easter Sunday trading happens but in some other places like Rotorua it is not possible for shops to open. As the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety himself actually said there are certain parts—even in Dunedin where the mezzanine floor of one of his places is able to trade but not the rest of the shop. It is unfair. Earlier Mr Hughes actually mentioned that it was rather unfortunate that the Commerce Committee could not agree and maybe make some amendments to the bill that came to the committee to try to improve the situation. I think one of the very good recommendations that actually came through the select committee process was the protections that we were going to empower the workers with and one of them is the right to refuse to work on an Easter Sunday. I know that Mr Damien O'Connor talks about the New Zealand tradition and the Christian tradition of New Zealand. I am one of those people who actually like my choices on Easter Sunday when I go to church and spend time with my family and sometimes it is actually with my family that I like to go shopping. But we have to remember without actually drawing negativity from certain sectors of this Committee that I am not actually criticising New Zealand. I am not doing that. We have to remember that not all New Zealanders are Christian. We have growing population diversity. We have growing religious diversity. We have growing ethnic diversity with people who celebrate different holidays. Not all New Zealanders actually celebrate Easter. For example my big brother here sitting next to me Mr Bakshi does not celebrate Easter but he does celebrate Diwali. Maybe for members of certain ethnic communities who might like to trade their Easter Sunday work programme with Diwali and might like to actually take that as their annual holiday they might be able to negotiate with their employers. That is some of the freedom that we are trying to give to the workers and the protection that we are trying to give to the workers through this bill. I am just astounded that the Labour Party and the Opposition oppose the bill to support the rights of the workers to refuse to work on Easter Sunday. It is the extra protection that we are providing to the workers that those members are saying no to and I am astounded by that. I think this is a great bill and I look forward to hearing some of my other colleagues from the Commerce Committee contribute on this bill.