Adams Paul: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Adams Paul: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 United Future will be supporting this legislation because we have discovered that one eats an elephant one bite at a time and this is one bite we are taking that is heading things back in the right direction. 
Opposition Members 
: Ha ha! 
PAUL ADAMS 
: It would be nice of my colleagues around the Chamber who are so supportive of employers as I would be to give the Hon Paul Swain a little bit of credit where credit is due for bringing in legislation that is heading us back in the right direction. But as has been pointed out I do have some areas of concern and I look forward to the support of my colleagues on this side of the Chamber for my Supplementary Order Paper which deals with people’s income where a large proportion is earned by commission. 
 Take for example the higher-paid salesperson who may be on a higher retainer than normal a person who is on a $269 per day retainer yet probably earns another $30000 or $40000 above that in commission. Unfortunately if my Supplementary Order Paper is not passed it would mean that people working on say Good Friday would have to be paid $512 for that one day and on Easter Monday another $513 for the day. However in the case of commission salespeople they will work to earn their commission. Employers will have to pay not only what is based on their relevant daily pay for the year but of course they also have to pay their salespeople the commission that they earn on that day. 
If this does not have the support of the Parliament I am concerned that if that salesperson decided that maybe one of those statutory days was a very poor day for customers coming into the yards because they are spending time with their friends and family one does not have to be a rocket scientist to work out that one will get much more money by staying at home. Therefore I look to my colleagues over here to support my Supplementary Order Paper because I think that that example shows exactly some of the challenges we face with this legislation. 
Let me say also that United Future absolutely supports holiday pay being based on ordinary pay and not relevant daily pay. However because we are the common-sense party and we believe in taking one step at a time we recognise that although this legislation is not perfect it is better than nothing. United Future wants to progress. We are happy to go one step at a time. We are happy to go a little bit slower than some other party would go. 
I have never found any common sense at all in saying: “This is not everything we want so I’m not going to do it.” I think the little kids do that. One looks at something and says: “Hey is this going in the right direction or is it going in the wrong direction?”; when United Future members look at it they say: “This is going in the right direction” and we put up our hands and say: “Well done yes get on with the job.” As a small employer myself I am very pleased that this legislation has a great chance of passing before the next holiday period. I believe that many small employers out there agree with this and they will be thankful that United Future is in this Parliament to support this legislation to help them out.