Fenton Darien: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8084. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to support the second reading of the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill which will restore to New Zealanders their legislative entitlement to 11 public holidays every year rather than in 5 of every 7 years. I again congratulate my colleague David Clark on the wonderful job he has done on this and it was a pleasure to be on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee to hear both the submissions on and his input into this. As the Government member David Bennett acknowledged he has done a very good job on that. 
Kiwis know a fair deal when they see one and that is what this bill is. Poll after poll has shown that the public is behind this because it is a sensible and fair measure. We will always honour Waitangi Day and Anzac Day but losing a public holiday when it falls on a weekend is not right. It is just not fair. So what this bill does is make sure that because that happens every 7 years Kiwis do not miss out on their well-earned 11 public holidays every year as in fact our holidays legislation guarantees. Over the last 20 years there have been more and more demands on working people for flexibility and for longer hours while at the same time job insecurity and anxiety continue to grow. Today increasing numbers of people are working on weekends and working longer hours as we have heard tonight—more than ever before. The current situation when Anzac Day and Waitangi Day fall on a Saturday means there is an unfair situation whereby for 2 out of every 7 years the public holiday entitlement as described in the Holidays Act is reduced. 
During the select committee I heard some of the Government members express concern that this bill will diminish the importance of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day. I do not buy that because 6 February and 25 April will remain as the days that the nation observes those days of special significance. In some cases Mondayising those days will make it easier for people to participate in events on days like Waitangi Day or Anzac Day especially in the weekend if travel is required. As David Clark has said most Australian states already Mondayise equivalent holidays—their Anzac Day and their national holiday—and there appears to have been no diminution of support for the significance of those days in Australia. In fact you could say this bill preserves the special nature of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day and there is an increasing recognition of the importance of those days in our history and identity. No one would suggest for a moment that Christmas Day has been diminished in importance by providing for Mondayisation where it falls on a weekend particularly for those who celebrate its religious significance. 
 So although the arguments that we have heard have been that this bill will reduce the importance and recognition of these 2 national days what I find really interesting—and this came out in the select committee process—is that the Government has bizarrely overlooked its own legislation the Holidays Amendment Act 2010. In that Act the Government legislated for the very thing the same thing that Government members have objected to—that is transferring the observance of a public holiday including Waitangi and Anzac Day to another working day. The Government argued then that that change was all about greater choice for employers and employees and could be made because of the operational needs of the employer or the needs of the employee but it appears to have changed its mind. 
Andrew Little 
: So the day wasn’t that important? 
DARIEN FENTON 
: It was not that important and no one can blame us for being puzzled about that when you go back to the original bill in 2010. The example given in the explanatory note said: “if Waitangi Day falls on a Wednesday an employer and a group of employees who work Monday to Friday may agree to observe Waitangi Day on the Friday.” That was given as an example in the bill and another example was Anzac Day. How bizarre that we had these objections from the Government when its own legislation in 2010 actually provided for Anzac Day and Waitangi Day not to be given the significance that it would like to claim they have. So this Government has already legislated for that in the workplace. This bill of course does not do that. It does not transfer the day. It recognises those days on the days they fall and it does it in the way that Christmas Day and Boxing Day have full recognition where they fall on a weekend. 
The next argument we heard during the select committee process was about cost. There were businesses that supported the bill. There were polls among businesses but the Government did a pretty good job in financial scaremongering. The worst figure it came up with was a cost of 13c per worker per day yet its own advisers admitted that that is likely to be overstated. It quoted figures deliberately excluding the 208000 self-employed people who are not affected by changes to public holidays. Actually they do not get public holidays and that is another issue that we would like to talk about some time. The Government also ignored the increased benefits to domestic tourism and the ability of flexible businesses to absorb and adapt to change. Most businesses already budget for 11 public holidays a year and should be able to absorb what is a very small additional cost over a 7-year period. 
The Tourism Industry Association made a fantastic submission. It was wonderful to hear such a progressive organisation. I want to congratulate Martin Snedden and the industry on their submission. They came with a wonderful submission as I said because they could see the twin benefits of boosting domestic tourism and giving Kiwis a decent break. I find it amazing that as the Minister of Tourism John Key does not agree with them. He is letting his industry down. He is not listening to it. It is time he stood beside the thousands of tourism operators who will benefit every year not 5 years out of 7 years if Kiwis get the same number of public holidays. This bill will be a win for tourism operators right throughout the country—in the small towns in the regions in many of the places that those members over there claim to represent. They should be listening to them. But it is also a win for hard-working Kiwis. John Key is offside on this bill with Parliament with public opinion and with the industry he is supposed to support. It is time he gave Kiwis a break and supported the bill. 
Unlike the National Government Labour believes that the economy should work for people and communities. That means it is not always about cost. Progressive businesses understand that time out is important to productivity and that their workers are not and should not be slaves for the business all of the time. The National Government does not get that. It talks the talk. It talks and talks about work-life balance but it does not walk the talk. When we come up with something as simple as this bill and as minor as this bill it cannot bring itself to support it because that would give workers a break. Its idea of flexibility is all one way. I just want to remind the House what our Holidays Act says. It says its purpose “is to promote balance between work and other aspects of employees’ lives …”. It is to give them time with their families and “the opportunity for rest and recreation” and it is time to celebrate “public holidays for the observance of days of national religious or cultural significance:”. That is what our legislation says. At the moment that is not fully fulfilled. This bill will fulfil that purpose.