Fenton Darien: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Easter Sunday Shop Trading Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 February 2007. Volume:637;Page:7613. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 After that hilarious speech by Rodney Hide I come back to the issue which is about workers’ rights and whether workers can be forced to work on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 
I thank the member Sue Bradford for bringing to the House’s attention the nice little gift this afternoon; most members obviously did not know where it came from. She reminded people that they—it is the Easter eggs I am talking about—were gifts from members of the National Distribution Union on behalf of the 200000 retail workers in New Zealand to remind us that if this bill and the other one that I will be voting against become law they will not be able to spend their time with their families on Easter Sunday and under Jacqui Dean’s bill on Good Friday. 
I went with some other MPs to a press conference today and along with those other MPs I placed the letter and a chocolate egg on members’ desks. Just in case members were too busy munching on the chocolates I thought I would read a little bit from it because I am sure most have not bothered to read it—that is the blue paper that was distributed to members today. “Dear Member of Parliament Easter Sunday is the last shop-free Sunday we have. It is not a public holiday meaning that shop workers will not be paid any more for working on that day nor will they earn a day off in lieu. At a time when New Zealand has been exposed by the Unicef report as a country where parents do not spend enough time with their children we urge MPs not to make matters worse.” 
Actually it is not just about the unions. This is from the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and others. [ 
Interruption 
] Some of these are people who work in Mr Bennett’s community. I want to make it very very clear to this House that I am on the side of these workers. Retail workers already work evenings weeks and on many public holidays. Easter Sunday and Good Friday are currently the 2 days in a year on which they can guarantee they will not be asked to work. 
Let us remind ourselves of history. People have talked about the bills that have come through this House but in 1990 most shops could not trade on any Sunday and they were unable to open on nine of the 11 recognised holidays. Now they can trade on 51 out of 52 Sundays and every public holiday except Good Friday Christmas Day and the morning of Anzac Day. [ 
Interruption 
] So Mr Bennett thinks those shops should open on the morning of Anzac Day as well. He should let us know so we can tell his constituents. This means that there are only 3½ days left in a year when shops cannot trade. I cannot accept that the public—or indeed tourists or those off big boats—cannot cope without shopping for those 3½ days a year. Really can they not just wait one day? 
Colin King 
: What about the 6 weeks’ holiday you get? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: What about the member’s holidays? National tried to take holidays off a whole lot of workers in 1990. Let us not go there again please. Shop workers have combined with other community groups and churches to call on this Parliament to save working people from the inexorable march of commercial demands made over and above the needs of ordinary New Zealanders. I support the call for Parliament not to continue to liberalise the working lives of these workers. I join with other parliamentarians who do not accept that it is inevitable that every day in the year should be a working day or a shopping day for that matter. 
As my colleague Gordon Copeland has pointed out New Zealanders already work some of the longest hours in the OECD. Many of us have been to European countries—France has been mentioned and I spent some time in Spain earlier this year—and we all know that shops there are not open on a Sunday. Does the world end? Do things change? Do people not go to those countries? Well they do. Also as other people have mentioned the level of productivity in those countries is much much higher and working hours are lower than they are here. Instead of learning from those examples and considering their possible application for New Zealand we continue through bills like this one the relentless quest for the expansion of working hours. 
I am a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which has been considering quality flexible work. We hear all the time about balancing work and home life how it is a growing concern for both employers and workers how improving that balance could help with employee recruitment and retention how it can match jobs with people who would not otherwise work and how it can benefit families and communities. We all know that there are more women more dual-income families and more sole parents in the workforce. That amplifies the potential for conflict between work and family life yet here we are today debating yet another extension and actually another intrusion into family lives. 
Also today we have been debating the important Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill relating to section 59 of the Crimes Act. The concern of those who are supporting the removal of the reasonable force argument is our children and what kind of environment and safety they are growing up in. Add to that the Unicef report that I have already referred to—and that some of the Opposition members made much of last week—and we get to the heart of the problem with this bill. It is anti-family anti-community and anti-worker. It focuses on the commercial imperative of shops being able to open on Easter Friday and Good Sunday above all of the interests of families. We hear so often in debates in this House members going on about families. This bill puts commerce before families. Surely on one or two days of the year we can put families before commerce? 
This bill ignores the 200000 people working in this industry who if this bill proceeds will be unable to participate in the range of family community religious and recreational activities that take place around New Zealand over Easter. I would also say that the bill takes quite a monocultural approach. It ignores the fact that New Zealand now has a range of different cultures particularly those of Pacific people who regard Sunday as a special day for worship for families and for cultural activities. 
Although I appreciate the efforts of the Commerce Committee to insert some worker protections in the bill I think the committee needs to get real and understand the real world. On many occasions in my role as a worker representative I had to deal with employers who tried to force people to work on Sundays when they had family and other responsibilities. Indeed I have dealt with the same situation in respect of many public holidays. I appreciate that the rights are in the bill but those will just not work. 
I do appreciate that the member in charge of this bill is trying to represent her community but I ask this House whether New Zealand will lose any trade or tourism because the shops are shut on one or two days a year. I quote again from the letter that was distributed to members this afternoon: “Whether it is making it easier for teenagers to be with their families at Easter or for shop-working parents to spend time at home the current restrictions are very important. Opening the shops at Easter would impact on far more than those workers who work on those days. We all talk about the decline in volunteers the impact that weekend shopping has had on sports clubs community events and family life. We cannot turn the clock back but we can put community before commerce on at least one Sunday a year.” 
So I call on this Parliament and also on business and communities to put families and their interests first on this occasion. I recall the efforts made by the National Government during the late 1990s to take away the holiday rights of workers. That move was resisted by workers unions communities and families and National failed. This bill will be resisted in the same way. If members opposite had been at that press conference today they would know that pressure is mounting against this bill amongst the retail workers whom I met and talked to today. I tell those members to talk to some retail workers to see what they have to say about this issue. They are not behind this bill. They do not want to be forced to work on Easter Sunday let alone Good Friday. So those workers are getting behind it. I am on their side; let us not go there again by supporting this bill tonight.