Moroney Sue: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9480. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): What a privilege to be the last speaker before an exciting vote is about to take place on this bill the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill. The New Zealand public is about to get a taste of what it would be like to have a good pragmatic Labour Government in place by seeing the sorts of pragmatic bills that would make a difference to hard-working families in New Zealand. They can watch this debate this afternoon and go “Yes that’s what we’d get under Labour. That’s what we’d get under Labour.” because very soon the Government is about to be defeated. The Government is about to be defeated in about oh 5 minutes’ time. I think I might take a short call just to make sure it gets defeated a little bit earlier.It is not before time that that Government gets defeated in its mean-spirited approach towards working families. That can be the only reason why the National Government is actually putting itself in the position of being defeated on a bill because it so does not want to give families the opportunity every 7 years to have the statutory holidays that they get every other year. How mean-spirited is that?I think this bill demonstrates absolutely for the New Zealand public the big difference in having a Labour Government in place where Labour clearly backs working families and clearly backs the idea that we want families to be able to spend more time together that we want workers to be well supported and that we are not mean-spirited enough to come up with a myriad of bizarre arguments about why every seventh year we would rob working families of 2 days off that they get every other year. There can be just no good argument for that. I think that National has demonstrated that again today that there is in fact no good argument for it.On Anzac Day and Waitangi Day New Zealanders will commemorate those days two times every 7 years in the same way that they do every other year. The fact that they are getting the right to have those 11 statutory holidays stay in place is not going to alterthat. What it will do is it will mean that they will actually get an opportunity to have those 11 statutory holidays. We have already had that debate in New Zealand. The law has already been passed that says that we have 20 days of annual leave and we have 11 statutory holidays every year. It is only a quirk in the legislation that actually stops Anzac Day and Waitangi Day being celebrated in exactly the same way on those two times every 7 years. It is mean-spirited for the Government to argue and actually risk a defeat in the House over trying to rob working families of those two holidays. It just shows how out of touch it is with ordinary New Zealanders and it is getting more and more out of touch every day.I do feel a sense of connection to this bill because the day—Hon Member: Oh it’s your bill now? Oh that’s right.Darien Fenton: No she’s a Labour MP.SUE MORONEY: Yes it is because I am a Labour MP so I feel a very strong sense of connection. But the first reading of this bill happened to be on the same day as the first reading of the other bill that defeats the Government and that is the bill to extend paid parental leave by 6 months. These two bills started out their journey together. This bill is coming to fruition an awful lot earlier than the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill but as long as we get paid parental leave extended to families as well I do not mind the wait.But I am really really excited to congratulate two colleagues who have worked very very hard on behalf of working families in New Zealand to make sure that this legislation gets through this House and to make sure that that entitlement goes to those families. One is David Clark whose name this bill is in. He has done a fantastic job. He has been up and down New Zealand raising the debate and making sure that he is advocating very strongly for working families as you would expect any good Labour MP to do. Then there is our deputy leader Grant Robertson who actually drafted the bill initially. He relied on the good luck of David Clark who obviously has got the luck of the Irish—Grant Robertson: He’s blessed.SUE MORONEY: —he is blessed; he is indeed blessed—and who was able to get that bill out of the ballot and get it on to the Order Paper. I was so impressed with his ability to do that that I have on several occasions asked Dr David Clark to come to the races with me on the weekend to see whether I could actually pick up on some of that luck but he has not actually obliged with that yet. But I am picking that in the year 2016 when Anzac Day falls on a Saturday or when Waitangi Day falls on a Saturday I might very well call him in on that and we will go to the races on a Saturday and then we will have a holiday with other working families on the Monday and it is all going to come together.I am not going to take up any more of the House’s time on this because I want to get to that really exciting vote that will show New Zealanders what New Zealand can look like under a Labour Government. Thank you.