Adams Paul: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
Adams Paul: Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act (Abolition of Restrictions) Amendment Bill — Consideration of Report of Commerce Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11982] 
PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 The debate on this bill is being treated as a conscience issue by United Future MPs mainly because we are a party that still has a conscience. Therefore I will be coming from a different perspective than my comrade Marc Alexander. 
I understand that due to the competitive nature of business today nobody thinks that it should be fair for one business to have an unfair advantage over another and I would tend to agree with that. However I do need to challenge that thinking when it comes to living life in the city. Just because each section of land in a city has the ability to have a building built upon it is that to say that we should let each section have a building built upon it? If that were the case we would have no parks in a city. That is what we are dealing with here. 
Most calendar years have 365 days. Currently there are only 3½ days left that still have no restrictions on them. So as I said if every section in a city had a building on it where would our parks be and where would life be in a city without parks? If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity prosperity would not be so welcome. Yet this bill goes further towards making every day the same as the next and I say that the calendar year with no special holidays is the same as a city with no parks. 
I have learnt that I can work every day and make a living. However what I give especially to others is what I have found makes a life. To give requires time. To my children love was spelt TIME and in this bill we are trying to give more of that away to work. People do not need more time to work; they need more time to show love to others. Success I have discovered is not about having more; it is about what you are willing to give up in order to have what you really want. I personally am more than happy to give up 3½ days in the calendar year when I may not be able to operate my business in the way that people try to convince me is best for business but rather put that time aside to put deposits in the memory banks of my children and grandchildren. 
I am not anti-business and I am not necessarily saying one day needs to be treated above another although I do appreciate that Easter Sunday is a special day to the hundreds of thousands of Christians in New Zealand. But what I am challenging the House to do today is appreciate the importance and significance of a special day and look at it in the same light as one does of our beautiful parks. Would members really enjoy a city without parks and if not would members really enjoy a calendar year without special holidays? 
I believe time will prove that one is as important as the other and therefore I will not be supporting this bill. There are two things to aim for in life: first to get what you want and second to enjoy it—only the wisest of mankind achieves the second. In this journey called life many regret that they did not put a time aside to smell the roses. Let us not take away another day—as we also did not take away the places that have been put aside to help us to enjoy the journey. 
Family is just too important to keep destroying by trying to make every day the same as another. Let us help protect the remaining 3½ special days by saying no to this bill. If we have progressed so tremendously by making work such an idol in this country why do we not look at the state of our families and decide that as we need parks we also need special days? Right now there are only 3½ special days left in a calendar year of 365 and I do not think that is too much to keep.