Key John: Holidays Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Key John: Holidays Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:614;Page:10553] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 I want to reflect on the schedules but before I do so I want to say that we have heard quite a lot of discussion about the impact that holidays will have particularly the 4 weeks’ leave that were sneaked into the bill through quite an underhand and appalling manner. The employers of New Zealand were told one thing then lo and behold the Holidays Bill delivers something else and the result of that action is clear in schedules 1 and 2. 
One of the great tragedies of this legislation is that lower-paid workers and workers who are looking for their first opportunity in the workforce—young people who are eager and keen—do not want 4 weeks’ holiday. The nanny State is telling them they want 4 weeks’ leave but they want the opportunity and they want the money. Equally if we ask people whether they want 4 weeks’ holiday or whether they want more money so they can provide better quality for their families afford to put more food on the table send little Jimmy to the holiday camp that he wants to go to or buy him a new wave thing he can take down to the beach or to enjoy some of the finer things in life I suggest they would not argue that they want 4 weeks. 
This provision is simply a cost that the country cannot afford. The Government has tried to fob off that argument by saying the cost is $350 million. The Government thinks that if it says that figure quickly it will not add up to much. However we know through the diligent work of the National Party that the cost is $800 million and in fact it could be even more than that. What we will actually see will not be a whole lot of people getting 4 weeks’ holiday—although some people will get 4 weeks—but two classes of citizen emerging and I predict that one of them will be those who own businesses. Some of the people who currently own businesses will simply give up the ghost. They are sick of hearing from John Tamihere the Minister for Small Business telling them that Labour will do things for small businesses in New Zealand. He may be trying to cut the odd thing here or do the odd thing there but then they get delivered this. They get delivered the killer blow—4 weeks’ holiday. Many small businesses came and saw us and said they simply could not afford to deal with this kind of legislation. They said they could not afford to pay time and a half and a day in lieu and all the things that are contained in the schedules. They said they simply would not be able to operate. What is that going to do for those people? Secondly let us think about it from this perspective. Many small businesses employ fewer than five people. When they have to give this additional week’s holiday what are they going to do? I will tell members what will happen. Employers will in fact have to work to cover that time. They cannot employ somebody else and if they have a couple of employees— 
Jill Pettis 
: What do they do now? 
JOHN KEY 
: Now they can share the load. But when employees take 4 weeks’ holiday the employers will be taking no holiday so where is the work-life balance for the entrepreneurs? So what does this Government tell us? It parades up and down the country telling people that it is into entrepreneurship and it wants to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and the “can-do” Kiwi attitude. Then as soon as some hard-working New Zealanders go out there and borrow a bit of money to put together a business they get socked in the teeth with this socialistic nanny State garbage that should either be used as a doorstop or as something to light the barbecue with at Christmas time. It should not be used for what it is going to be used and that is to deliver a poverty trap and unemployment to poor hard-working New Zealanders. Their Christmas present the delivery à la the Labour Party will be unemployment. That is what will happen. They are not going to get a pay rise delivered by schedule 2 they are not going to get 4 weeks’ holiday—they are going to get 52 weeks’ holiday. That is what will happen as a result of this so no one should be conned into believing that this is in fact some great wonderful thing that has been brought off. So often in this Chamber we have heard Australia held up as a place that can afford and has 4 weeks’ holiday. There are two reasons for that. Firstly it is a richer nation than we are and its Government is smaller than ours is. Secondly I would argue very strongly that people who are looking at Australia are looking in the wrong direction. They should go and have a look at the United States of America which has a minimum of 2 weeks’ holiday a year and the economic prosperity in the US is so much greater than New Zealand’s.