Gosche Mark: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Gosche Mark: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19671] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 The Government will be supporting the referral of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee so that public submissions can be sought. It is not committed however to supporting the bill beyond that stage. This Government is prepared to listen to the public on these issues and to take their views on board. There is no better place to do that in respect of this bill than in a select committee. 
This is a family-friendly Government that has introduced a wide range of policies designed to help working families. The major package coming into effect this week Working for Families follows on from previous policies that introduced paid parental leave fairer holidays legislation affordable quality childcare and so much more. 
The select committee will have to listen to the submissions I am sure will come from employers employee organisations and individual New Zealanders. It was very interesting to hear Dr Wayne Mapp say that because this bill is supported by nurses and teachers it must be bad. I ask him to repeat that statement when he gets up on his hind legs again because nurses and teachers will be very interested to hear the National Opposition spokesperson on industrial relations say that they should be ignored and that their views and wishes on these issues are bad. They are the people who make this country so good. Where would we be without nurses and teachers? The National Party would have us do without them because it will scrap as many jobs as it can if it cuts taxes as it says it will. 
We on this side of the House are prepared to listen to the arguments. It may not be necessary to enact legislation to achieve the measures in this bill. Many employers realise that with a Government as good as this one that is bringing unemployment down so low they do have to be more flexible about the working environment and to go the extra mile to get parents to the job. That may mean shorter hours and more flexible working relationships but it may not require legislation. However let us hear the arguments. Let us look at the facts and not judge just on bias and ignorance like the National Party and others who oppose the bill. 
I like Sue Kedgley am always interested in hearing from the so-called family values side of the House. The National Party always goes on about family values and how important it is to uphold them. Let us think back. When I was growing up I and my brothers and sisters played sport and engaged in all sorts of activities and I could almost guarantee that every week my mum and dad would be there alongside all the other mums and dads either at practices during the week or at the games on Saturdays and Sundays when we played rugby league cricket soccer or whatever it might have been. When my children who are now in their 20s were growing up most of the time I or my wife could be there. Sometimes we coached the sports teams or organised the activities. A lot of parents were able to do what we did as our children were growing up. Members should go out there now and see what it is like on the sports fields of New Zealand. Members should ask themselves why very few children engage in sporting and other activities. It is not because they do not want to; it is because it is now extraordinarily difficult for families to be involved. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: Ha ha! 
Hon MARK GOSCHE 
: Wayne Mapp laughs at that because he has no connection with that part of New Zealand with ordinary New Zealanders who want to be there with their children and enjoy the opportunity to be on the sidelines to be there for rehearsals to run the Scout troops to be part of ballet classes and to do all the things that I did for my sons and daughters and that my mum and dad did for us—all nine of us or seven of us or however many were living in the house at the time. The National Party has no connection with that. It knows nothing about it. National Party members mock this sort of legislation and say that it does not even have the right to go before a select committee. 
The Government says we should hear what New Zealanders have to say on this bill. We will make a judgment on whether legislation is required but New Zealanders really feel strongly about this stuff. We want a workforce that is flexible. We now work 7 days a week 24 hours a day in this land. What suffers as a result is the family cohesion that I grew up with that my children grew up with and that today’s children are missing out on. That is what I talk about when I talk about family values. It is not about dollars and cents production and so on in isolation. We need a complete society. 
I think bills like this are very healthy and should be supported. That is why the Government will support the referral of this bill. It sits alongside a whole lot of measures we have already introduced. We want it to go to the select committee. We will see what happens within that select committee before we commit any further on this legislation.