Hide Rodney: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 It is very good to see Mr Benson-Pope for a change seeking the call to make a 5-minute contribution to this House and I look forward to hearing it! 
There is nothing easier for politicians to do than to put their hands up and say: “I vote for more holidays for working people in New Zealand.” The workers would probably love them for it. But who pays? It is not Matt Robson who is reaching into his pocket to pay those people’s wages each week. It is not Matt Robson who is struggling at night with the crazy compliance costs that business people in this country have to face. No no it is not Matt Robson. It is business people who do not get 4 weeks’ holiday. Small-business people can be working 16 to 17 hours a day 7 days a week for 52 weeks of the year providing the entrepreneurial leadership that provides us with the wealth that we enjoy in this country. 
I know that David Benson-Pope scoffs at that. He would not know what it was to have to work earn a dollar pay the bills and find the weekly wage bill. He is like all members of the Labour Party: they would not know how to turn a dollar. They say: “Let’s give everyone an extra week off.” When I called out to Mark Peck: “Why not make it 6 weeks?” he said: “That’s a good idea.” Why not make it 8 weeks? [ 
Interruption 
] I ask Mr David Benson-Pope why we should not make it 10 weeks. Listen to Mr Benson-Pope! He interjects for about 2 hours he gets the call and he is so scared that Helen Clark might hear him give a speech that he sits down quickly without uttering a word. He just wants to be part of the noise in the background. [ 
Interruption 
] We also have the handbag for the Prime Minister piping up from the back row. 
We heard a speech from Jim Anderton today. I have heard Jim Anderton give speeches before and they are all extraordinary but this one was up there. I want to share it with members because it was extraordinary. He said that he was a businessman and he employed people. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Making trolleys like tanks! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: His business made trolleys like tanks that never went straight. I do not think his brother is so keen on them any longer. Jim Anderton said that he gave everybody an extra week’s holiday a year and he told this adoring House productivity then went through the roof. If that is the case why do we need this law? He is saying that all the business people who are struggling away are idiots who do not know what they are doing because all they need to do is give everyone an extra week’s holiday and productivity will increase. If Jim Anderton truly believed that he would not need this legislation. 
I beseech this House: the people who will be hurt by this legislation will be low-income people whose small businesses will not be able to afford this measure. The people who will be benefiting from it will be overseas companies which will become at the margin that much more successful. 
It might make Matt Robson and Labour MPs feel good to introduce this measure. But the only way that we can have a better lifestyle and indeed more leisure is to create and produce more as a nation. Michael Joseph Savage knew that—that the wealth is created by the people. Our attention in this House should not be given to trying to pass a law to put wages up and reduce working time; our attention in this House should be given to enabling us to prosper. If we can prosper we can have a better standard of living and indeed can work less. Nothing in this bill creates another dollar for New Zealanders—far from it. This bill is a costly measure. I heard New Zealand First tell the House that the cost will be $500 million.