Brown Peter: Holidays Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Holidays Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:606;Page:3705] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 The holidays legislation in this country is in a mess. It is absolutely in a mess. Employers do not understand it; employees do not understand it. I may have an advantage over some people in this House—not Paul Adams; I respect that he has been in business—as I have been in business. If employers have a reasonable number of staff they spend hours sitting down working out people’s entitlements. It is not obvious what they are entitled to. The system is not transparent. 
I am a little bit surprised that the National Party will not support this bill going to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. When we first came to this House and were in coalition with National if I was told once by Max Bradford I was told a hundred times that the holidays legislation is in a mess and is in urgent need of sorting out. That is not to say we agree with everything that is in this bill but I notice that the National Party said it is not going to agree with the bill then raised three issues—all relatively minor I would suggest. Those issues are sick leave bereavement leave and the level of fines. We share its concerns on those three issues. But that is not to say we do not welcome this bill going to the select committee and the legislation being sorted out once and for all. What we need in this country is fair straightforward and easily understood holidays legislation. This bill gives the opportunity for us to provide that. 
I see that Matt Robson is getting quite excited. I should put him at ease and tell him that New Zealand First will at least support his bill going to the select committee. We will support it going as far as that. We know that some people in this country are in our belief entitled to a longer holiday than they get—maybe not everybody; maybe 3 weeks is adequate for many. But the people we are particularly concerned about are casual employees. I do not know whether members know what happens to casual employees. They simply get 6 percent tagged on their wage at the end of the week and it is all absorbed. Six percent is two-thirds of nothing I might suggest to an employee who has given his or her heart and soul to a company. Maybe there is a good case for it to be increased to 8 percent which is equal to 4 weeks’ holiday. So we welcome Matt Robson’s bill coming into the House and we will support it going to the select committee. If there are no pitfalls or obvious trickeries I think we might even give it a little bit more support—in qualified areas at least. 
But we think that the biggest possible effect of the Minister’s bill is on penal rates. That is a concern we share with United Future. It raised it and we share that concern. I am surprised that the National Party did not even raise the issue. We know that it is a concern of small businesses so we will be taking a very very close look at the long-term effect of that. 
Let me suggest that it might well be that employers have to pay a little bit more for their staff in various industries activities or operations but that will be overcome easily we believe if the legislation is simple straightforward and fairly easily understood. We believe that the aim of this Parliament should be to get positive legislation that everybody concurs with recognising that everybody is entitled to annual holidays and statutory holidays. 
In concluding I simply say that New Zealand First will support this bill going to the select committee. We will approach it with an open mind. We hope that the submitters make their submissions very clear and easily understood and that every other party takes an equally open mind so that when this bill re-emerges it is fair transparent and accepted by business and employees alike.