Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): It is a bit hard to not make religious references but in this case I want to say hallelujah if this Government is actually going to give the power back to the local people. Hallelujah because in Christchurch that is exactly what we want. We want the power given back to our local democracy so that we can decide for ourselves as a local community what needs to happen in the rebuild of our city. So hallelujah please—we are waiting for the day when local democracy comes back to Canterbury and Christchurch. This bill is abhorrent on many many levels for many sections of the community. Let us start with women. Let us start with the power imbalance there is for women workers who will be most impacted on by this because they are the ones who are working in retail who will not be able to make the choices that that member over there Melissa Lee says they will about whether they work or not. If you have been listening to the speeches that have been made today and the questions that came up in the House today it is obvious that women are paid less and they will make the choice to actually stay and work on Easter Sunday because they need the money to feed their kids to pay their rent and to pay their power. So where is the balance of power there? Women will be impacted on because they are not able to have the choice because they do not get paid enough. They are the ones who are going to be servicing the community that is going to get out shopping on this particular day. Let us face it: that impacts on their families and their kids. We heard today in question time that there are something like 16000 people who are homeless who are working or in training. Working people get paid so little in this country that they will look for every opportunity to earn extra money and that includes working on Easter Sunday. So why do we not do something about improving the conditions for our women workers? Why do we not do that? Why do we not look at that rather than creating another opportunity for retailers to profit from the misery of our families? Let us look at our families. Let us face it: we are becoming more and more of a secular society. What happens on Easter Sunday? What happens on Easter Sunday?Ria Bond: We spend time with our families.POTO WILLIAMS: We spend time with our family. We put those Easter eggs out there in the garden for our children to find. We spend Easter Sunday with our children because we can because we should. That is what this about. This is about spending time with our families. I tell you what we should actually say: Let's do away with Christmas." Whether you are religious or not the sanctity of Christmas is about families and sharing time together with families is it not? That is what I believe. So what are we doing to families if we are going to make it impossible for people to actually spend time with their families? They will not have a choice about whether they work or not because there is this power imbalance between low-paid workers and their employers. There is this power imbalance. What about Pacific people? What about Pacific people? They have very strong religious intent and Easter Sunday is one of their most sacred days. They are going to feel compelled to work because of those pressures that I have discussed before. But I want to tell you one thing: we have got a Pacific caucus that is very supportive of ensuring that families—Pacific families—have adequate time off to do what feeds their soul and that is to worship together as a community. It is very important to Pacific people to gather together to worship together as a community. This bill impacts on their ability to do that. My fellow Cook Islands MP across the other side of the House said on one of his social media pages that he had not received one single complaint from the Cook Islands community about this bill. When I reposted that on my own social media page what happened? What do you think happened? There was not one there were not two; there were dozens and dozens and dozens of issues that came up where Pacific people—Cook Islands people people from the Cook Islands community—said: "Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. What are you suggesting—that one of the most sacred days in the Christian calendar actually becomes a day of trading?". Was there not a story about Jesus and some traders at the temple? And what did Jesus do on that particular day?Iain Lees-Galloway: He wasn't a big fan of money traders.POTO WILLIAMS: Jesus was not a big fan of money traders. Pacific people and Cook Islands people are highly religious. This is an anathema to them. This is a complete anathema to them. So let us talk about the opportunities that we have as families to get together. Let us talk about it. Whether you are religious or not Christmas is one of those days and Easter Sunday is one of those days. It is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar. It is one of the most important days in the Pacific community when we gather together as Pacific people. I spoke with another member of the National caucus who happens to be a Pacific Islander—considering there are only two of them it must be the Hon Sam Lotu-Iiga. When we were in the Cook Islands together to celebrate Constitution Day—50 years of Cook Islands self-governance and free association with New Zealand—we discussed the opportunities there are for Christian people to celebrate together. We sat together at lunch and we discussed our both having grown up within the Pacific Islanders' Congregational Church (PICC). As teenagers we had a connection with the Rev. Sio from Newton PICC and we talked about that. There is no way that you can tell me that he is not feeling some distress at not being able to vote with the Labour Party and the Opposition parties to vote this bill down. You cannot tell me that. I feel distress for my Pacific brothers in the National Government because they are not able to vote according to their own conscience and their own choice. There is no way you can tell me that they do not feel some distress about that having had numerous conversations with the Hon Sam Lotu-Iiga and with Alfred Ngaro about the depth of their faith. I know the depth of their faith and I know they are feeling distress. They may deny that they are getting pressure from the Pacific community but I know from what I have seen that they are getting pressure from the Pacific community. So I ask them—I ask them—please examine the depth of your faith examine your conscience and vote with us. Cross the floor and vote with us. Do not deny that this is a problem for you in the Pacific communities because as I said when Alfred Ngaro said he had not had one complaint about his stance on this particular bill when I reposted that there were dozens and dozens of people who came out of the Cook Islands community to say: "That is blatantly wrong. We know that Alfred Ngaro is a man of deep conviction to his faith so it is blatantly wrong what they are saying." We have many days of commemoration that do not hold as much passion and faith as this particular day. One day for families one day for Pacific people one day for women—because this is what we deserve. I really hope that my Pacific brothers can examine their hearts and their conscience and do the right thing—not bloc vote with the National Government but actually do what their conscience tells them what their faith tells them and what their God tells them to do and vote No. Thank you."