Fenton Darien: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3487. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to speak in support of the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill. I want to congratulate my colleague Dr David Clark who has made an excellent beginning to his time as an MP and I think it augurs very well that this bill was drawn out of the ballot on his first full sitting day. I also want to acknowledge Grant Robertson who drafted the bill when this issue became predominant in the media last year when people realised that they were not going to get 11 statutory holidays last year and also that actually in Australia they do. It is very nice also to be debating this bill which will actually provide some benefits to working people. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: We could catch Australia. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: We could catch up with Australia actually—that is one way of catching up with Australia. We are missing out on everything else but we could do this. That is a very good reason to vote for this bill. 
But also a very good reason to vote for this bill is to provide rest and recreation for workers and families and support communities and actually businesses as we have heard in the arguments from Dr Clark. It is a very simple and fair proposition. It will happen only once every 7 years. Rather than being a reason to vote against it as the National member who spoke said—and may I say I am very disappointed that the National Government is not supporting this; I am very disappointed in that—it is a reason to do something because after all workers are not having such a great time under this Government. It would have been a gesture—just a little tiny gesture—of kindness particularly because National is not going to be in Government next time it comes around anyway. I would have thought that National members could be generous enough to support this—to have a look at it in the select committee which is after all the process. Just because the bill goes through the first reading does not mean that it is finalised. It has to go to select committee. 
I wanted to address the issue also that the member David Bennett raised about observing Waitangi Day and Anzac Day and the importance of doing that. I agree with that. We all on this side of the House absolutely agree that those are two very important days. We all have seen the rise in respect for observing Anzac Day among younger generations and older generations. Waitangi Day now has become a day when we all celebrate our nation’s history and the partnership that we have with Maori. But under this bill that will not change. Nothing will change. Those days will still be observed: Anzac Day on 25 April and Waitangi Day on 6 February every year. They will still be observed. The only thing that will be different is where they fall on a Saturday or Sunday; they will still be observed on those days but instead of missing out on a statutory holiday like people do once every 7 years they actually get to have a day off on the Monday. It works as Dr Clark has pointed out like it does with Christmas Day and some other public holidays like Boxing Day New Year’s Day etc. 
Some time ago the Labour Government actually brought in provisions so that where people had to work on Christmas Day where it fell on a Saturday or Sunday they could actually have the day off on the Monday. It works in the same way. It actually means that people still get those holidays over Christmas and New Year and under this bill they will get 11 holidays every year which is what New Zealanders are guaranteed under our Holidays Act and have the right to expect. This bill is very fair. [ 
Bell rung 
] This bill is very fair—[ 
Interruption 
] Sorry Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch; I have still got a minute. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Yes you have. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: OK I have still got a minute. Sorry about that. 
Hon Members 
: She sat down. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: She’s allowed to sit down. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! Just in the future if the member sits that is the end of the speech. You have got 40 seconds left. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. As I was saying this is an extremely fair bill. I do not understand why National members cannot support it to the select— 
Hon Annette King 
: Having a bad night over there. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Yes. I do not understand why National members cannot support it to the select committee. This would be something very positive that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee could be looking at for a change instead of the dreadful things we have got ahead of us this year under this Government—the plans of all of the attacks on workers that it intends to bring to our select committee. Would it not be nice to be actually considering something positive something good something that is not going to cost very much at all and something that will not happen for 7 years—when that party will be well out of Government?