Bennett David: Holidays Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Bennett David: Holidays Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 The Holidays Amendment Bill which we are discussing is aligned with the bill we have just passed through its Committee stage the Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2). Both bills went through the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee at the same time. I thank the Minister of Labour her staff and the officials for the way that they have worked to make this bill possible. Well done. We welcomed the contributions made by the committee members from both sides of the House who were diligent in their appreciation of the arguments for and against this bill. We welcomed also the many submitters who came along. Submissions were heard primarily in conjunction with the Employment Relations Amendment Bill No 2 but we had a large number of informed submissions and also a number of people were heard in person in regards to this bill. So I thank all of those people. 
The bill contains some main provisions which the Minister has gone through. She has given people a bit of a heads-up as to what is the heart of this bill. Labour Opposition members across the way are not discussing the bill at all. They are just trying to see it as part of a right-wing agenda rather than looking at how it is constructive and in the best interests of New Zealand workers because it gives them choice. The Labour Party will fight choice in the work environment to its dying day. 
The whole point of the Labour Party is to avoid choice in the workplace and to have control in the workplace through the union movement. Anything that looks like choice in the workplace is seen as abhorrent to the Labour Party. Its members will fight it; it is the reason that they are there. The Labour Party is there to control people to not give people the ability to think for themselves. It is there to dictate to people what should or should not happen and it does that under the guise of looking after the vulnerable looking after the young and looking after the elderly. The reality is that Labour is the party that takes advantage of vulnerable people because it uses fear and all those other emotional traits in an attempt to hijack the true intention of New Zealand workers. It is a shame when legislation like this comes before the House which is in the best interests of New Zealand workers and the Labour Party tries to hijack it with its fear tactics. 
The heart of the legislation is where it gives employees that choice on their fourth week of annual holidays which a lot of employees will want to take advantage of. It will be in the best interests of them and their families especially in these very tough times. Also there are clarifications on Christmas New Year and public holiday rules and a number of other things such as the calculation of average daily pay the transfer of public holidays the penalties for employers and the proof of sickness or injury. 
All those issues were considered by the select committee and its members came to conclusions that I think they are very comfortable with. The House may visit again the average daily pay calculation at some time in the future. Some submissions set up some possibilities in regards to what could happen in the area of daily pay calculations and that may well over time be considered in a different bill in order to take into account the difficulty of those calculations. 
Overall this legislation is in the best interest of workers. The Labour Party is against it because it is about choice. The National Party supports this bill and looks forward to its passage through the House.