Cunliffe David: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Cunliffe David: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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DAVID CUNLIFFE (NZ Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 May I compliment the member who has just resumed his seat. It is nice to see him back in the House and sitting so amiably with his party leader. I am grateful that he could drag himself away from his electorate office to address us on this important matter tonight. And of course I want to recognise the experience that the ACT party has as a good employer! ACT members are obviously well qualified to make a contribution. 
I am reminded of an old story about draught horses in London. A few years ago draught horses worked a 6-day week. I do not know whether it was an ACT member or someone else on contract but some bright spark came up with the idea of running those poor draught horses which collected the rubbish for 7 days a week as a productivity measure. There was only one problem. When the draught horses started working 7 days a week half of them died. They could not keep going. Therein lies the great beauty of the concept of having appropriate leave for workers. Not only is it ethically the right thing to do not only does it have good spin-offs I say to our United Future friends for families who appreciate seeing the working parent home more often but also it is better for productivity than our colleagues on the Opposition side of the House would have us believe. They know and I know that if one gets a bit of time off one comes back to the job refreshed and ready to get stuck in— 
Shane Ardern 
: There is no evidence of it in the member’s case. 
DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: —even if it is in a milking shed in Te Kuiti. That member might have some vague and fond memories of being in a cowshed looking up and thinking that life is good. 
Shane Ardern 
: Has that member been to Te Kuiti? 
DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Actually I grew up in Te Kuiti so there you go mate! I went to Pukenui Primary School and it was a bloody good school. Te Kuiti is a wonderful place—[ 
Interruption 
] They still have the statue there and I am surprised that member has not been to lay flowers at it. 
I am very pleased to support this bill going to a select committee. The Government’s position is that Matt Robson’s bill deserves support to get it to a select committee so that we get some submissions and some good debate about this issue. It is a process that the Government intends to learn from. It is also the Government’s position that it is not able to introduce 4 weeks’ leave during this term of office although it is a measure that a number of members including myself have publicly committed themselves to supporting over the medium term. 
It is also very important to note that the Government has moved on a number of fronts to improve the conditions of workers during the last couple of years. We recently introduced fuller holidays legislation which restored the right to time-and-a-half pay and a day in lieu if one is forced to work on a public holiday. A niece of mine worked Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this year and for what? Nothing more than her basic hourly wage of about $8 an hour. That is the sort of condition that workers are having to live with after the legacy of the 1990s. We are grateful that we got in in 1999 and were able to stop the other side’s iniquitous holidays legislation. It was going to say you could sell Christmas. You could sell your statutory entitlements for a few— 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. 
DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I am really looking forward to this. 
Rodney Hide 
: I am pleased that Mr Cunliffe is looking forward to this point of order. The member on his feet cannot accuse the Speaker of selling Christmas or make the other accusations that he made. He should be asked to withdraw and apologise. He is not a new member I think. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Did the member say “you”? If the member did would he please withdraw it. 
DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I would be happy to but I honestly cannot recall using that word. In any case I certainly meant to refer to the Opposition and should any other interpretation have been taken I regret that. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The matter has been dealt with. The member has acknowledged it. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. When a person is asked to withdraw he or she withdraws. He or she does not get into a discussion about it. The point is—[ 
Interruption 
] The chief Government whip is yelling out. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I asked the member whether he had said “you”. The matter has been dealt with. 
DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: The point is the Labour Government has done right by working people and will continue to do so. We have a raft of measures to our credit on our record like paid-parental leave which was developed in consultation with our colleagues in the Alliance. A lot of hard work went on over the last couple of years to produce that legislation and we are glad to see that it is in place. And we are glad to see that it is up for review to see whether the number of weeks are actually sufficient. As a new parent myself I take a particular interest in that bill. 
The Employment Relations Act has restored a sense of fairness and balance in the workplace after a decade of the Employment Contracts Act. The point is productivity has not measurably dropped as a result of the introduction of that great revolution in employment law the Employment Relations Act which still allows enterprise bargaining and voluntary unionism and is hardly what the Opposition could paint as a step backwards in time. It is a forward-looking modern piece of law. We have reformed health and safety law with a range of laws that allow no excuses for having unsafe workplaces. Around 500 workers are killed each year in industrial accidents or from work-related illnesses. That is a shame that we cannot allow to continue.