Pettis Jill: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Pettis Jill: Holidays (Four Weeks Annual Leave) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12667] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour—Whanganui) 
: 
 I freely admit that this short 2-minute speech that I am going to give is a matter of self-indulgence because of the years that we spent in Opposition just waiting for the day that we could talk about legislation like this. I know it is a peculiarity of how Parliament works that we will vote against the progress of this bill but that is purely and simply because its provisions have already come into force as part of a Government bill. The full part of that legislation will come into effect in 2007. But this is a great day for us and a great day for the workers. 
It is very clear from some of the things that the National Party members have said during this debate that they have never ever got dirt under their fingernails. I tell Mr Carter that yes I may not have dug a ditch in my professional career but I most certainly have performed manual tasks. 
Unlike the National Party members over there on the Opposition benches manual labour is not a Spaniard to me though it clearly is to them. Some of the National Party people have made naive statements about workers being able to freely negotiate their terms and conditions of employment. It is obvious that it is a very very long time since any of them have had to go into the boss’s office and ask to be paid additional salary each week. There is an employer in my electorate who is very closely associated with the National Party and one of the employees—a long-term employee—went to negotiate with that employer for an additional 1 week’s holiday. That employer closely associated with the National Party said no the person would have to work for the employer for 10 years before the person would get 4 weeks’ holiday and there was the door if the employee did not like that because there were plenty of others who would take that job. That is a statement that we have talked about for years and years and I want to tell the National Party that that attitude still prevails out there in the workforce. That conversation took place just this year. 
I also want to remind National Party members that as we get into the election campaign next year they will be talking about how important it is for the family to have time to spend together. All National’s fundamentalism will come out in attitudes about the importance of the family. If the family is so important why cannot we give family members an extra week to spend together when they can have quality time together? It is actually incredibly important for parents to be in a relaxed state of mind so that they can spend a quality a productive an enjoyable and a relaxing time with their families. The National Party members speak out of both sides of their mouths sometimes when they are talking about families. 
I want to conclude by saying that the sky will not fall in now that the workers in this country are to have 4 weeks’ leave in due course. All those predictions that have been made in the past by right-wing groups have never ever come to pass and the economies of the countries that have enjoyed 4 weeks’ leave for a very long time are good strong economies. This is a positive piece of legislation and I am delighted to see it go through the House. 
Motion not agreed to.