Little Andrew: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8088. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to take a call on the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill. I want to begin by acknowledging the fine work of my colleague Dr David Clark in shepherding through this very important piece of legislation which is about recognising and genuinely and truly having an opportunity to celebrate these very important days. 
I acknowledge the comments made by the member opposite Mike Sabin who apparently is to join us—or who may have already joined us—on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which is I might add a very important select committee with a hard-working chair who has the record for running the shortest select committee meetings I have ever known of; I think we had it down to 4 minutes on one occasion which only narrowly beat the 7-minute meeting we had the week before. The point is this— 
Simon O’Connor 
: Move on. 
ANDREW LITTLE 
: No it is a very important committee and it deals with very important legislation not the least of which is this bill. 
The important thing is this. Mr Sabin made this point and he drew upon the treacherous work that the soldiers of the Anzac undertook when they were sent off to the Dardanelles. They left these shores not really knowing where they were going or why they were going there many conscripted. Of course we know that World War I was an important period in the formation of the Labour Party because it was many people who were opposed to the war and the reasons for it who formed the basis of the union Labour Party. But those men—and they were largely men—who were sent to their deaths in that tragic farrago of a military event did so not because they were fighting for extra work days and not because they were fighting to generate more profit for their employer. When they laid down their lives they did so because they wanted to preserve the freedoms that go with living in democratic and liberal democracies like ours. They fought for a cause that was about life and humanity and about themselves as parts of communities and families. That is what they were fighting for as they did in World War II and as they have done in just about every other war since. It is ultimately about humanity. 
If there is any piece of legislation that reflects is part of and expresses our humanity it is the legislation that gives working people the right to take time out from their work—from having to work for others placing themselves under the submission the control and the command of others to earn a wage. It is legislation that allows people to express themselves in their communities as people and as family members. This legislation is about taking the 2 days that define this nation this fine nation of ours and saying that we are going to observe them. And in the weeks in which they fall you will not have to do your regular full working week. You will be able to take time out—as you would do when these days fall on a working day—and properly respect and observe these important days. 
That is to apply to Anzac Day which was part of our nation-building history and which if it did one thing alone that was important to this nation forged a sense of solidarity. It was the origins of our identity: we were not just cannon fodder but were a nation that was part of the comity of nations making up the Commonwealth; we stood with our brothers and sisters across the Tasman to assist our colonial fathers in far-flung fields. We forged our identity as a fighting force and as good people and we learnt the lesson of solidarity. That is what we brought back from it that is what we learnt from Anzac Day and that is what we will be able to celebrate when we get to properly observe Anzac Day and actually take a break from our regular working week every year in the week in which Anzac Day falls. 
Debate interrupted.