Sio William; Tisch LindsaySu'a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Earlier today I attempted to table a submission before this House. It was organised by the Pacific sector in the trade union movement in Auckland. In less than 3 weeks they collected about 6000 signatures. That petition calls on this Government that it requires that National Government members be given a free vote on this particular issue and in particular the Pacific communities are asking that le afioga ia Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and Alfred Ngaro be allowed to vote with their conscience because the community believes that if they were allowed to vote with their conscience they would vote against this particular bill. This is a petition that has been picked up by former All Blacks in Auckland afioga La'auli Michael Jones and afioga Aiolupotea Ofisa Tonu'u and also by one of our very own boxing champions who is here in the House tofa ia To'aletai David Tua who is also here with Fa'amoetauloa Jerome Mika.I make mention of those individuals and there are many others including local board members of Ōtara Māngere Papatoetoe and Ōtāhuhu because this is a group of a new generation of Pacific people who support Easter Sunday. They see this country as their country. This is a generation who I refer to as the brown beautiful smart talented and with faith who serve their communities who serve their families and upon whom have been bestowed matai titles by their families in recognition of their service to the community. They have said to me and they have said to the many others who signed this petition that Easter Sunday ought to be protected because it is a day on which working families throughout New Zealand are able to spend time with their families and are able to spend time with their communities.I have observed how the members of the Government have responded when we have asked them about the conscience vote. I note that the Hon Bill English has admitted that yes he is against Easter trading but none the less they have had a discussion and he follows what the rest of the group have said. I note that Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has been silent on the issue but I note also that Mr Alfred Ngaro has been wishy-washy in his response. On some occasions he appears to be supportive of Easter trading and on other occasions in the past he has voted in support that Easter Sunday ought to be protected.That reminds me—my elders once said to me: Here is how you recognise certain people." This is a saying from Samoa: "O le … ia e pei o le gogo fa'atoa afio mai lava e avatu lau i'a."—be like the gogo—the gogo would be the man-of-war bird a frigate bird—high up on the clouds; it only comes down to pick up its fish. "Ae aua e te pei o le lago leaga o le lago e ku ku solo."—but do not be like the fly for the fly stands here stands there stands everywhere and you do not know where that fly stands. I am reminded of that because of the way that this Government has behaved around this particular bill. On some occasions you will hear the Government members argue that yes this is good for the workforce. On other occasions they say it is good for business—which one is it? Because you cannot have both—you cannot have both. You cannot say that this is going to be good for business as well as good for the working-class communities because that is not what the working-class communities are saying.Out of the 6000 who signed the petition a significant number of them are from the trade union movement who want to be able to rest on Easter Sunday. But our fear now out of these—there have only been 3½ days that we rest on when the workers are able to spend time with their families and communities: that is Easter Sunday Good Friday Christmas Day and of course Anzac Day. All 3 days have significant meaning to a community of faith—faith communities. That is not just Auckland—I am only talking about the petition that came from Auckland; those who signed this in Auckland—but we have not even talked about the other people of faith communities throughout this country who do not believe that this is good for New Zealand. They say that this is a matter of well-being for the community.I have heard the Minister say that this is an issue of freedom—freedom for shopkeepers freedom for councils and freedom for the workforce. He does not bother talking about giving freedom to the National MPs to vote on this issue though. I would say that even though they are passing the buck and saying that it will be up to the councils whether they decide to pass this policy on Easter trading or not the fact remains that this is the final reading of this bill. When that Government whips all of its MPs to pass this bill it will allow for Easter trading throughout every city of this country—mark my words. It will then enable the opening up of shops on Good Friday Christmas Day and Anzac Day.Todd Barclay: No it won't.Su'a WILLIAM SIO: It will—it will. If those members can guarantee it get up and say it is guaranteed that those shops will not open.They argue that this bill will somehow fix the mishmash of opening hours that some parts of the country have. There are designated areas for tourism purposes where shopping is allowed but if they give this to councils some councils will open it up and other councils will not. But they are passing the buck because it will be up to the communities whether they pressure their councils or not on whether the councils pass this policy or not. But the cost of the implementation of this bill is also borne by ratepayers throughout this country.So any member of that Government who believes in the arguments that have been presented by Minister Woodhouse and by Key—and there is an article here that says "John Key playing loose with the facts on Easter Sunday trading law" not telling the complete truth about these matters. Any member of Parliament who believes that this is not a conscience issue who believes that because the Government is passing it to local government nothing will happen and that Easter trading will not occur is lying to themselves. Only a fool would accept that argument and worse if they accept that argument—and this is the message that many in the Pacific community are looking at—it means that they are prepared to sell their values and principles. That is how Pacific peoples are seeing certain members of that Government because of the way that they will vote on this issue.Mr David Tua has come here—he is not a political person but this is an issue that is valuable to him—and he represents not just himself and his family but he belongs to a group of young brown New Zealanders who value Easter Sunday who value Good Friday who value Christmas Day and who value Anzac Day. They believe that these days as they are today when trading does not occur are good for workers good for families and good for communities.I take on board what my colleague from the Green Party said earlier: it is an anti-family day because what you are seeing is the imposition of workers being forced to work on these days on which they would normally rest and spend time with their families. What is the pattern here? What is the pattern that we are seeing here? More and more the workforce is being asked to work longer and longer and longer hours for a mere pittance while the select few who are buddies of this particular Government are able to make good money.The most damning report on this Government that highlights this is the net worth report that was released by the statistics department last month where we saw the net worth of a Pākehā family on average is $144000; for Asian families $33000; for Māori families $23000; and for Pasifika families $12000—$12000. That is a disgrace. That is a disgrace and is damning on this particular Government and these kinds of bills.These kinds of bills couched as freedom to the community are really capturing that workforce where a worker wanting not to work on Easter Sunday is going to be penalised—is going to be penalised by the employer and will be penalised by others for not working on Easter Sunday. Unlike Michael Jones who took the strong stance of not playing on Sunday but still earned money many of the shop workers if they say they do not work on Sundays—not only will they be penalised by their employers but they might not even have a job after that. That is the kind of country that this lot here is setting up and it is disgraceful—disgraceful. I would hope that if they have any courage on that side—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! The member's time has expired."