Hudson BrettBRETT HUDSON (National): It is a pleasure to speak on this Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill particularly after that last contribution. The main point that I think we should focus on here as we look to progress this is that this bill is all about providing choice. It provides choice for workers. It provides choice for New Zealanders to choose what they are to do on their Easter Sunday. It provides choice for employers. It provides choice for territorial authorities.I have yet never met a city district or regional councillor who has said that they do not think that regulations and by-laws and ways of operating should somehow not be reflective of what their local residents ratepayers and constituents want. So it is pretty amazing actually that in this Committee what we hear is people opposing a bill that offers those territorial authorities—offers those councillors—the ability to put out to their residents a question of what they would like to do and what they would have them do across their area and then put that into practice. What is more it offers a means to do so that is far less expensive I would argue than something like 77 referenda held across the country. In fact with Minister Woodhouse's Supplementary Order Paper 179—a fine Supplementary Order Paper it is—and having listened to expert advice during the select committee process there was a suggestion that instead of using the by-law process we could do it as a matter of policy but with special consultative provisions to make sure that we are hearing the right voices that those authorities and those councillors are hearing the right voices and acting appropriately. Fundamentally what this bill would do should it pass—and I certainly hope that it will it will have my vote along with my colleagues in the National caucus—is to fundamentally allow residents workers employers and representatives in the local areas across New Zealand the right to choose whether or not in whole or in part shops can open across their district. Fundamentally if Parliament is going to deal with this issue the best way to deal with it is to place that power in the hands of those individuals and their local representatives. So I am pretty shocked it has to be said that so many people think that choice and freedom are bad things. Nonetheless that view is what they appear to hold.The other parts of course that are very very key to making this work are within the changes to section 5 of the principal Act—those changes that will provide protections particularly for the workers who for reasons of their own do not wish to work on Easter Sunday. The bill is very clear that those employees will have every protection that New Zealand employment law and this bill can offer them. What I find astounding is that there have been several contributions in this reading and others that suggest that those protections do not work because employees are too scared to use them. What those people are saying is that none of the employment protections that exist on the statute book in New Zealand—some of which the previous Labour Government was responsible for—work. What they are basically saying in this House and in this debate is that we should strike them all off the book because they do not believe they work. Actually what I think they really think is that it will work when it suits them but it will not work when it is a measure that this Government is trying to make. I am quite flabbergasted to hear that those members opposite think that employment protection does not actually work.This bill if it is passed will provide those protections to employees; it is very clear about that. In fact one of the changes that I do hope is in the Supplementary Order Paper—I will admit I have not looked at the specific area of detail—concerns one of the changes that we did suggest to officials through the process. In actual fact the way that the bill had been written it would have demanded that employees go straight to a personal grievance process should they want to protest against being in their mind made to work on Easter Sunday. So as this debate continues I will be looking to see whether we have changed that. I would say on the whole I am very very pleased to see all the other changes in the Supplementary Order Paper. I do hope that this bill will see favour with the majority in this Committee. I certainly know that I will be voting in favour of it and my colleagues will be also.