SpeechJAMIE STRANGE (Labour—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this bill from the Labour Party side. I'll first talk about what the bill does and then I'll talk a little bit about the Easter Sunday trading—Easter Friday Easter Sunday—and then I'll talk about the view on the bill from this side of the House.First of all I'd like to begin by acknowledging the member who had the good fortune of having his bill drawn. He certainly put a lot of thought into this bill and it comes from personal experiences that he has experienced. I have visited the member's establishment in Nelson and it's a very very good establishment. I won't mention the name of it. I won't put the name of it on Hansard—I'll leave it to others if they would like to. But I'd just like to acknowledge the member's excellent establishment. He's run it very well for 12 years.What the bill does is it seeks to remove as the member says an extra burden on business by removing the restriction on trading and selling alcohol on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The legislation is aimed at removing the restriction on selling of alcohol on the two statutory holidays at Easter time so Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The member didn't put Christmas in there. I'll be interested in why he didn't put it in there. He may give us a reply at the end on that. I see some nods over there but certain members were focusing on Easter Friday and Easter Sunday two very religious days. Christmas is also a very religious day Christmas being the birth of Jesus and Good Friday being the death of Jesus and then Easter Sunday being the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So the member as he has already outlined as well—a little bit more information as to the reasoning why.Just a brief history lesson for the benefit of those here in the House and those watching at home in terms of the restricted shop trading days. So currently almost all shops must be closed under the Shop Trading Hours Act of 1990 on the following days: Christmas Day which is a public holiday; Good Friday also a public holiday; Anzac Day until 1 p.m. on 25 April also a public holiday; and Easter Sunday which is actually not a public holiday but they are closed on those times.Look if I was to summarise why we have those current rules in place I think there's an aspect around history particularly linked to Anzac Day; it's a way of honouring those soldiers who have fought and died for the ANZACs—the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.And aspects of a religious nature—personally I'm a Christian and I hold those values really strongly. As a country we are founded on Christian values and Christian principles. The member acknowledged that we certainly are more secular as a country now than we were you know going back years ago. And we do see that in the House when people give their oath. As he said some say So help me God." and others leave that part out. So I acknowledge what the member is saying: we have become more secular that is correct. But we must also acknowledge the fact that as a country we are founded on Judeo-Christian values.And I think by and large they have served us well. Our legal system is based on Judeo-Christian values. We are part of other countries around the world who broadly subscribe to those Judeo-Christian values. Most of those countries make up the OECD countries and we have very strong relationships with those countries. However we probably are moving more towards a secular society but it's important we don't lose sight of where we came from and what we have what it's based on.So there are religious aspects and there's another aspect I'll probably put in there which is around family. It's around having certain times of the year when the shops are closed and that people are really strongly incentivised to look at doing something else rather than the commerce aspect and having time with family. Now some would argue you can also be involved in commerce and have family time at the same time which yes technically you can. But I think that there's no harm in just having a breather for a while is sort of one way I would describe it in terms of that.So before I move on to the next part just to finish the history lesson. So Saturday trading was introduced in 1980; we didn't have any Saturday trading before that. And when I look at the history of why that came in in the 1960s and 1970s airline travel became a lot more prevalent. So New Zealanders would travel overseas more frequently and they saw overseas that other countries were open they were having trading on a Saturday. They'd come back to New Zealand and they would start asking questions "Oh why don't we have it?" And so there was some pressure put on the Government by various groups and people and in 1980 Saturday trading was introduced.Sunday trading was introduced in 1990. So 10 years later we had Sunday trading—quite strong restrictions and those restrictions have changed. In fact there was a protest for the Sunday trading in 1990 and one of the slogans read "Don't weaken the weekend." And that was by the Shop Employees Union. And if I can interpret that correctly they were saying that the weekend is a time to not engage in commerce but to spend time with your family and focus on those strong family values.As I said I grew up going to church every Sunday morning and then we'd have lunch together with either other members of the church or with our own family and then we'd do family activities in the afternoon. In fact we didn't have any Sunday sport then either. Some people will remember the All Black Michael Jones didn't play rugby on a Sunday. So he played for the All Blacks—absolutely incredible player; I still remember his efforts in the 1987 Rugby World Cup—would not play on a Sunday and that was from those religious values that he held.So I'd better move on to the next part—I've only got three minutes left. So in terms of the Labour Party I am sorry to disappoint the member but the Labour Party will not be supporting this bill. It's primarily around supporting our workers; supporting our workers to have a balanced life and in terms of time off. Now I acknowledge the member said in his opening speech that some workers do want to work on that time and that's probably correct; I think that's a fair statement. However it's not right that any workers could be pressured or forced into this. I'm sure other speakers will sort of touch on that point to sort of tease that out a little bit further in terms of those details.But basically I think there's only a few days in our calendar—there's really only a few days left—where we're focused on spending time with families and not putting pressure on people to go out to work. Now it used to be and as I said before the Judeo-Christian values used to be: Sunday didn't work because that was church—that was the Sabbath as you would often term that. And so every Sunday people wouldn't work unless you were in the emergency services or other aspects where you certainly had to—that's gone. Saturday trading obviously went before that. What we have left is Christmas Day Good Friday and Easter Sunday—so there's a religious aspect to that—but there's only a few days left and we have to be very very careful with these days. We lose that and I think personally I think we'll lose one of the key foundations of our country. So that's from a religious aspect. And then in terms of the workers' aspect and as I mentioned others will sort of touch on that a little bit more.The reality is there is no business without workers—there is no business without workers. And the Labour Party has always stood for the rights of workers. That is the fundamental aspect that we stand on as the Labour Party. Now if the member had brought a bill to the House where it was that shops that were already open and already trading and then they added in the alcohol well that might have received a different response but the aspect around shops that are now currently closed being allowed to open—that's very different. Because what that means is those workers instead of having those statutory days off that time with their family they will be working. They will be working in that time. As I said before there's only a few precious days—in fact we're only talking about two days in this bill but I'd add it to three with Christmas Day—we're only talking about three precious days. Let's not lose these days; let's hold on to what we have as a country. Let's hold on to the values the history we have as a country and let's support and protect our workers as we do that. Marja Lubeck: Weaken the weekend.JAMIE STRANGE: Let's not weaken the weekend."