Woods MeganDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on this piece of legislation and to signal that I will be exercising my personal vote to vote against this legislation. I want to spell out the reasons why I am voting against this legislation and I want to specifically talk to the provisions in new sections 5H 5I 5J and 5JI. I think this is the crux of the legislation and it shows how out of touch the members opposite are that they naively believe that these words on a bit of paper offer the kinds of protections that are required to ensure that the retail workers are going to be treated fairly. Listening to Mr Hudson's speech showed to me just how out of touch that member is. I wonder how many minimum wage retail workers he actually speaks to and asks about their ability—Hon Ruth Dyson: In the Koru Club.Dr MEGAN WOODS: That is right; in the Koru Club. I do not know how many he speaks to in the Koru Club. I wonder how many minimum wage retail workers that member has had a conversation with and has asked about their ability to work their own roster to nominate the hours the casual hours that they want to work. I wonder how many that member has had a conversation with. I wonder whether he has talked to any people on a 90-day trial and asked them at day 45 whether they can go to their boss and say No I don't think I want to take those hours you're offering me. I'd like to do something else with my time so on this occasion I won't be taking up that offer you're putting to me." This shows the naive and out-of-touch nature of the Government that we have sitting opposite us. If we go through these provisions new section 5H says that the Employment Relations Act which requires a shop employee to be available to accept any work that the employer makes available on Easter Sunday is unenforceable against the shop employee. I would like to hear one of the Government members take a call and tell us exactly how they think that is going to work in practice—how they think that a minimum wage retail worker is going to have the ability to say no. Then we go to new section 5I "Shop employee's right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday". "A shop employee—(a) may refuse to work on Easter Sunday; and (b) is not required to provide the employer with a reason for refusing to work on Easter Sunday." Again I would like to hear one of the members opposite give us an explanation of exactly how they think that conversation is going to pan out—that an 18-year-old minimum wage retail worker is approached by their boss who says "I want you to work on Easter Sunday." and that employee can just say no and "I am within my legislative rights not to tell you why I won't work." That is just absolutely out of touch. And to think that this is the ability just to take a personal grievance that is there—this is just ridiculous. The fact that we have protected certain days and said that we will give a blanket day off to everybody so they can spend it together is something that we have whittled down in New Zealand to 3½ days. But those days are there for a reason. People have talked about religious observance; other people have talked about the ability to have family time. There are many sporting and cultural tournaments and festivals that are held over periods of time when it is accepted there will be common days off. This is what we are choosing to give up with this legislation. But the other piece of this legislation and another reason that I will be voting against it is that it is just bad legislation. This is the Government deciding it wants to do something but not having the intestinal fortitude to do it itself instead palming it off—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I think the member knows that phrase is out of order. The member will withdraw.Dr MEGAN WOODS: I withdraw. This is a Government that is simply palming off to territorial and local authorities the onus—the cost—of doing this. One of the clauses that I especially like in this legislation is new section 5E where this Parliament is telling territorial local authorities that they must not "delegate to a committee or other subordinate decision-making body community board or member or officer of the local authority the power to make a final decision …". This is rich from a Parliament that is passing legislation that is passing that onus on."