Power Simon: Holidays Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Power Simon: Holidays Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:614;Page:10508] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I start my number of calls on this bill by making a contribution to the title debate. Following on from my colleague Roger Sowry I say that what is interesting about this bill is not the fact that it attempts to tidy up a mishmash of legislation with regard to holidays including public holidays and sickness and bereavement-based leave but more particularly that it is part of an ongoing agenda that this Government has of essentially telling workers and members of the New Zealand public how to live their lives. 
Jill Pettis 
: The Employment Contracts Act didn’t do that did it? 
SIMON POWER 
: The member is right; it did not. The fact is that the Employment Contracts Act allowed members and others who were working to negotiate arrangements that suited them. 
This particular legislation does two things in the main. First interestingly it attempts to balance workers’ home lives with their work lives. Members may call me old-fashioned but I thought that workers were able to do that—that people were quite capable of making those decisions for themselves instead of needing legislation to tell them how to live their lives and how to balance the difference between work and home life. This bill is part of an ongoing patronising finger-wagging agenda that this Government is determined to impose on the working people of New Zealand. First the Government says people will pay more for their sherry and port. Second it then comes along and says that if they are lucky enough to be able to afford the petrol to drive to a rural tavern in order to balance their home life and their work life under the new smoke-free legislation it will not allow them to have a cigarette in their home life while they are balancing that with their work life. 
Second this bill takes away choice from workers. This bill should be called the “Part of a No-Choice Agenda Bill”. What it does sneakily before the Christmas break descends upon Parliament is to give commands to those who have a working relationship by stating when they are to take their holidays how many annual holidays they are to take and how they are to balance their home life with their work life. Members on the Opposition side of the Chamber say that grown adults in New Zealand are capable of making those decisions for themselves and that they do not need an interfering we-know-best cringing “lefty” Government to come along and tell them how those relationships should be conducted. I will tell members who will suffer as a result of this legislation particularly with regard to 4 weeks’ annual leave: the workers themselves. 
This is the “Penalise the Young Working Couple Bill”. Instead of young working couples having a choice as to whether they take a fourth week of annual leave and instead of those couples having a choice as to whether they wish to earn a bit of extra money to reduce their mortgages and pay off some debt this legislation will require that the young hard-working couples of New Zealand take 4 weeks’ annual leave whether they want it or not—primarily because this Government continues to run an agenda that says it knows best as to how people should balance their lives. Members on the Opposition side— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: We do. 
SIMON POWER 
: The Minister in the chair said that Government members do know best and that is a damn good summary of this Government’s attitude towards the working lives of New Zealanders out there. I say to the Minister that he does not know best and God help us on the day that he continues to think that he does. 
Adult New Zealanders who are out there working know how to balance their home lives and work lives. Adult New Zealanders know that if they want to take 4 weeks’ 3 weeks’ or 5 weeks’ annual leave they can work that out during the time of their employment relationship. They do not need to be told by Jill Pettis to take 4 weeks’ annual leave. They are capable of sorting those matters out for themselves. This bill is a “No-Choice Agenda Bill”.