Prasad Rajen: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Waitaki Easter Trading) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Prasad Rajen: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Waitaki Easter Trading) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3475. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 Ni sa bula Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson for the third time today. 
Chris Hipkins 
: It’s a record. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: It is a record; thank you. Yes it is a record. It is certainly a record on saying “Ni sa bula.” I do first want to say that I acknowledge and respect the sincerity of the member Jacqui Dean who has brought this bill the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Waitaki Easter Trading) Amendment Bill to the House. I do that sincerely. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I can feel a “but” coming here. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: What is that Mr Williamson? 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I can feel a “but” coming here. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: Yes but maybe the member should listen because I did say it with sincerity and I mean that with sincerity. The member represents the interests of the section of the public that she represents. But I take a very particular view to these provisions. I do not know why the National Government keeps on bringing these bills to the House and putting us through this angst. 
Maggie Barry 
: Because we believe it’s right. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: The chattering classes from the North Shore will soon learn to listen—learn to listen. You are a first-time member. Please listen. You might learn something. It is dangerous but the member might because there is another view. I would like the member to listen. [ 
Interruption 
] I am not like this; I am like this. All right; that is good. 
My colleague Darien Fenton has raised very appropriately the interests of workers. I do not want to do that because I accept what the member has said. But I do want members of that party to think about what they have advocated for in this House ever since they came in here in 2008 and this was that they were pro-family—that they were pro-family. I say to Jacqui Dean that the one indicator of all of the research that actually makes sense of all the research about family well-being is the concept of time. I take it that Jacqui Dean has not studied that because what our families are craving is just time to be together: time to spend together to make decisions to have meals together etc. Over probably decades now we have constantly and progressively eaten into family time in this society so much so that we now have just a small window where families can plan with confidence that they will have the time to be together. I say this quite sincerely Jacqui because this is a matter that we did spend a lot of time on in the Families Commission and elsewhere studying what contributes to family well-being. [ 
Interruption 
] Todd McClay knows nothing about this because Todd McClay was the last member who raised this type of bill in the House. He failed. Jacqui Dean has raised this before and it failed. But somehow there is some madness in members like that who keep on bringing this to the House so we go through this period of angst. 
Families say that they just want time and at the moment what is left? Is it about 3½ days? There are 361.5 days or something like that available to do everything that Jacqui Dean Todd McClay and members of the National Government who support this bill want to do. There is plenty of time. There are only 365 days in a normal non-leap year. Why is it so difficult for members of the Government to simply accept that it is OK to say to our families that you will have these 3 days that will be sacrosanct that nobody will be able to interfere with them that they will be reserved so that you as a family can do what you want to do? There are those who will engage in religious practices there are those who will engage in absolutely quality family time but somehow it is so difficult for members opposite to just get to that point. That for me is argument enough to say to leave our families alone. Leave our families with the one thing they yearn for and this is time to have quality time that contributes to family well-being. Our families know that this is a fact because all the research shows us that but here we say that it is OK. 
It is not about the commercial sector. The commercial sector has every other day of the year except for 3 where it can ply its commercial trade. There are no restrictions on that. Why is that not enough? Why is that not enough for members opposite? Why is it so difficult for members opposite to simply accept that this is sacrosanct time for the family? I argue almost singularly on behalf of the families of New Zealand who have told me and many others in many many different ways that this is for them. Why do we confound them? Why do we find it so difficult to accept it? Why is it that with monotonous regularity members of the National Government bring this issue to the House? Todd McClay has brought it and this is Jacqui Dean’s second attempt at this. It has been through all of that so why is it never enough? Why do we not just put this to rest and say as a country confidently that our families deserve the time and we will enable them to have it. They have every other day of the year to do all of the shopping to spend as much money as they want to. The argument about tourists is not that convincing because many tourists also accept that there are cultures in the societies they visit that they have to respect just as we respect and accept the cultures in the societies we visit. Thank you. For those reasons let us not support this bill.