Lees-Galloway Iain: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9015. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I am tempted to respond to some of the sillier things that National members have offered in this debate this afternoon but I do not want to waste my time on that except to say to David Bennett that if he thinks that I am the Simon Crean of the New Zealand Labour Party then I call him the Ken Wyatt of the New Zealand National Party. 
The wafer-thin arguments that we have heard from National members this afternoon against this bill the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill represent the very poor opinion that National members of Parliament have of the people of New Zealand. For some reason those members of Parliament think that New Zealanders given the opportunity of a long weekend when Anzac Day is commemorated on a Saturday or a Sunday will all charge off to the beach and forget the solemn respect they have for the day the people and the sacrifice that they made. That was the argument that Mike Sabin made that all of a sudden— 
Mike Sabin 
: That’s right. 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY 
: “That’s right.” he says. He has so little confidence in New Zealanders that he believes that given half an opportunity they will walk away from Anzac Day. Well ladies and gentlemen people who are listening to this debate and watching this debate mark that. That is what Mike Sabin and the National Government think of you. That is what he thinks of New Zealanders that they have so little respect for Anzac Day for our armed forces for our veterans and for the sacrifice that they made for our freedom that they will walk away from Anzac Day if they have a long weekend. 
 Well I have experienced a perfect example of how people can easily deal with this. Anzac Day commemorations are held up and down this country. If families choose to do that outrageous thing of spending a few days away together they can go to an Anzac service in the place where they go on holiday. How hard is that—how hard is that? Communities up and down New Zealand large and small all commemorate Anzac Day and if people are away from home they can simply go to the Anzac Day commemoration in the part of the country they go to. 
I did this when I was a student association president. We had university games held on the weekend that Anzac Day fell on and all the student association presidents realised that it was important for us to go and respect and acknowledge the day in the place where we were at. It was very easy to organise and it was very easy to do. 
The second ridiculous argument that the National Government has proposed is that this will cost businesses more than they can afford. Well as David Farrar pointed out this will cost businesses around 0.1 percent of their wage bill. That is how much their wage bill is going to increase by—0.1 percent. That is not of their total turnover; it is of their wage bill. Well if National has done so much damage to the New Zealand economy that a 0.1 percent increase to their wage bill will put businesses under then that is a sad indictment on this Government’s failure in economic management. 
Thirdly there is the argument that this bill will have no effect until 2015. Well that again sums up the National approach to politics—that if it does not do something before the next election it is not worth doing. [ 
Interruption 
] That kind of short-term thinking is what has got us into the position that we are in Mr Bennett. That is why this country is in such a deep depression because this Government is more interested in politics and results before the next election and it has no long-term plan for this country. 
The arguments we have heard and the hiding behind the stories of the commemoration of Anzac Day of the sacrifices made at Gallipoli at Passchendaele at Afghanistan at Timor-Leste—in places all around the world—are nothing but pure cynicism and National cloaking itself in all of those stories to hide the fact that it just does not want to give New Zealanders a few more days off. That is all it is. It is thinly veiled it is cynical it is sickening and it should stop now. National will rue the day it voted against this bill.