Roche DeniseDENISE ROCHE (Green): I want to address some of the issues that the previous speaker Brett Hudson has raised. Actually I think that it was a remarkable speech revealing an enormous amount about National's ideology and where it is coming from—using the word Stalinist" for example. Very interesting.This legislation is a dog's breakfast and we should boot it out. It is another example of this Government clawing back the few protections that ordinary working people have and in this case it is about ensuring that the measly 3½ days per year that retail workers are guaranteed to have away from the job because the shops are closed—it will be reducing that to 2½ days or at least it will not be. It will be kicking that decision to other people to make. The only days that shops are required to be closed—and everybody has said this—are Easter Sunday Good Friday Christmas Day and Anzac Day and that is it. Even these days of closure do not actually apply to all the shops. They apply just to the ones that no longer are exempted and there have been hundreds and hundreds of exemptions across the country. What this bill wants to do is make that inconsistency—basically ensure that it happens everywhere.So what it does is it says it is OK to have a piecemeal approach to the rights of working people—those people who work in the retail sector. What it does is it gives territorial authorities—local councils—the ability to decide whether shops can be open or not after they have consulted their communities. I think that is a hospital pass. You know this Government says it is all about choice and in fact Minister Michael Woodhouse—because I wrote it down; I will quote him. He said "It puts choice in the hands of communities." but actually what it does is it pushes extra costs on to those communities. They have to undertake a special consultative process costing $80000 to $100000 before they can make a decision about it and we heard from councils during the select committee process that actually do not want to be spending that money. They asked that this Government make a decision that was consistent across the country.It is the Government's job to make the law. Governments and Parliament should be making the call. That is how you get a consistent approach. But this Government is kicking it to local government—to local councils—so that it can avoid making the decisions itself. Why would that be? Ria Bond: Pass the buck.DENISE ROCHE: Why would it be passing the buck like that? Oh maybe it has got something to do with the fact that the last 10 times bills like this have come to the House members from that party have voted against it. This way with this legislation they can vote for it and then they do not have to make the decision about whether shops are open on Easter Sunday. They can keep their hands clean and they can let a council make that decision. That is a poor performance from this Government. Contracting out the decision making—that is what it is doing.In this country we have very few breaks from consumerism—3½ days is what we have got at the moment. We also have 3½ days when people who work in those shops are guaranteed family time and I have seen research that was submitted during the select committee process from Unicef that showed that in New Zealand we have one of the lowest rates of family time in the world. The Minister and the members on that side are completely divorced from the reality of ordinary working people's lives because this is what happens. The "protections" that they are offering for retail workers who decline to work on Easter Sunday—and that is what it says in this legislation; that they can decline to work—mean nothing to ordinary working New Zealanders because what happens in the retail environment is that you have a lot of women workers you have a lot of workers who are working alongside their employers in isolated—Ria Bond: Hairdressers.DENISE ROCHE: Hairdressers of course as my colleague from New Zealand First knows very well. You have people who are working alongside their employers. You have people who are desperate for every hour they can get because they are not on a fixed roster. You have people who actually—with our labour market at the moment—feel lucky to have a job.The employment relationship between the employer and the employee is not a balanced or equal relationship. So the "protections" in this bill are that retail workers could take a personal grievance—wow—or they could take legal action—wow! How on earth are they going to do that and maintain the relationship with the employer? Because by the time you have taken a personal grievance the relationship is on the rocks and it was never an equal relationship to start off with in the first place.What worries me with this out-of-touch thinking from the Government and from that side of the House is that those members have no clear understanding of what it means to work in a shop. They have no understanding of what it means to be working every hour you can to make that money and they have no idea what it means to try to say no to your boss—no idea. And because they have no idea they might easily think that by slipping a couple of paragraphs into this piece of legislation it is protection. That is rot.They have also suggested that the unions could take their part in preventing that kind of—Iain Lees-Galloway: Exploitation.DENISE ROCHE: —well I did not want to say "exploitation" but yes—the exploitation of these ordinary working New Zealanders. They suggested that the unions should have a role in enforcing this. Well that is very well and good and it happens—it does happen—with our retail workers in larger workplaces where they are able to organise collectively. But this Government has done the ordinary working people of New Zealand no favours by making it harder and harder and harder for unions to organise and for members to actually be able to act collectively to ensure that they do have decent working conditions. Even our unions do not have the resources to go from small workplace to small workplace to check on every single worker on Easter Sunday to make sure that they are adequately protected.It is a huge piece of naivety for this Government to bring this piece of legislation to this House and say that it is about choice. It is not about choice. It does not give ordinary working New Zealanders choice. Actually the way this Government is forcing its members to vote—it is not about choice there either. I would have thought with this being a conscience vote that members on that side of the House and even yourself Mr Deputy Speaker—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member will not bring—sit down when I am on my feet. The member will not bring the Speaker into this debate. You know the rules and so does everybody else. If you want to make a political point knock yourself out but do not bring me into it.DENISE ROCHE: I apologise Mr Deputy Speaker.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Good on you.DENISE ROCHE: In full flight I was saying that members on that side of the House should have the choice to be able to exercise their conscience adequately not make a decision that gives the decision-making power to councils to decide whether or not shops should be open in some parts of the country on Easter Sunday. On that side of the House members should be stepping up and doing their jobs. Anything less is not doing their jobs.Every single one of the Green Party MPs will be opposing this bill."