Te Ururoa Flavell: speech
te-pati-maori
Thu May 17 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Te Ururoa Flavell: speech
Thursday, 17 May 2007, 10:44 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill: (Stevie Chadwick);
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Te Ururoa Flavell, Member for Waiariki
Yesterday I met a woman describing herself as a wife, mother and grandmother from Whangarei. She is also a worker on the shop floor at a local warehouse. We were pleased to have a discussion with her.
She told me how this Easter, she refused to work the Sunday, and instead enjoyed time with her whanau.
Her decision was made for cultural and spiritual reasons. But upon returning to work, she was aware that her colleagues had other reasons which prevented them from being able to make the same decision that she had. She listed these as, and I quote:
• Pressure by employers to work as a so-called ‘team’;
•
• The effect of upcoming appraisals where it appears that taking Easter Sunday off could well result in the boss claiming they were unreliable;
•
• Because of the low wages, workers felt compelled to work to earn time and a half.
•
Madam Speaker, her letter ended with a plea, “we look to all our Government leaders to protect retail workers from the kind of abusive power that can happen in corporate-owned companies”.
So I come to The Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill thinking of that wahine. And it raises some questions for us.
How well do the provisions in this Bill express the hopes and dreams of workers for a better future?
Do they take into account the views of workers on the shop-floor – the belief that an injury to one is an injury to all?
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What will be the impact on workers? Indeed what is the nature of the actual demand for shops to be open on Easter Sunday?
I have heard the advocates of Easter Trading say there is a demand for shops to open. Well I need to tell you that I was at Te Hui Ahurei a Tuhoe at Easter and not one of the thousands of people there; workers and employers alike; made any suggestions that they would rather be working - so who is making the demand?
As the House already is aware, the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 first amended shop trading hours. This was followed by the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Amendment Act 2001, which allowed garden centres to open on Easter Sunday. And that was followed by a list of certain categories of shops that could trade on restricted days.
These changes have made New Zealand one of the most liberalised shopping nations in the world - second only to Iceland!
The fact that a precedent has been set, however, shouldn’t force anyone’s hand to determine how they vote on this Bill.
Special and Protected Days
You see Madam Speaker, this Bill, and Jacqui Dean’s before it, suggest some significant challenges to the public policy preference to retain certain special and protected days.
We believe that in areas of debate which bring with them such major alterations to public policy, then the process must as of right, involve public consultation, local Council decision-making and Ministerial oversight.
We were pleased to see in this current Bill, that much of the decision-making would reside in the context of the territorial local authority area. Indeed it would be up to Councils to determine.
However, and it’s a big ‘However’, allowing local communities to have their say through their Councils could have the potential to extend trading way beyond the concept of limited exemptions.
Exemptions should be for limited localities
The Maori Party supported the idea of territorial local authorities determining how the Act applies in their own unique situation.
But we believe that it would be preferable for exemptions to be granted to limited localities within districts rather than to the whole TLA. In Rotorua for example, that may be the crafts-market; in Auckland it could be the Viaduct or Victoria Park Market; in Porirua, it could be the North City Plaza.
And here we come to one of the most critical areas in the Stevie Chadwick Bill, related to this provision for local authorities to consult with their communities on the issue of Easter Sunday shop trading and then to make a decision appropriate for the area.
Madam Speaker, the Bill enables councils to enact special consultative procedures to find out whether locals want their shops trading on the day. The sponsor of the Bill, local member Stevie Chadwick, had suggested that the consultative procedures outlined in Part 6 of the Local Government Act 2002 would be used.
Yet, the select committee in a sort of a strange turn of events, decided instead to recommend that section 83 of the Local Government Act be used. This change cuts out section 81 of Part six – which just happens to be the particular provision for councils to consult with Maori communities.
We have to ask what’s this all about if the opportunity to consult with Maori is specifically prohibited by the Select Committee.
Exemptions should be for Genuine Exceptions
Madam Speaker, the National Distribution Union has spoken with us about the possibility of exemptions being granted according to criteria in order to limit trading to genuine cases.
A genuine case would be defined as a significant event being held in the area; a sudden population boom being experienced which is due to the location being an Easter weekend destination. We think Whanganui this Easter gone with the Hui Aranga; think Ruatoki with Te Hui Ahurei a Tuhoe; I think Wanaka with the biennial air show; and think Rotorua every Easter.
Stevie and I well know that Rotorua is the place to be, but even more so at Easter when our environment becomes alive and passionate and in the passion and swing of Latin America.
Every Easter, Rotorua gets into the groove – that’s the samba groove and salsa curves of the Jambalaya – the biggest Latin and Pasifika dance and music festival in Aotearoa. Forget about the‘dancing with the stars’ - for three days and four nights, Rotorua transforms into a massive dance party.
Easter hui; Jambalaya; airshows; no matter how spectacular - are all significant deviations to the norm - the type of exemption we could envisage as being associated with a major festival.
Madam Speaker, as Member for Waiariki I would have supported a Bill which responded to the unique needs of unique places – such as Rotorua; or other areas which have a genuine case.
I would have supported a case for genuine retailers to apply for an exemption to attract the tourist dollar, rather than just another commercial shopping day. A specific purpose for a specific area.
However there was always a concern with this Bill in that the scope went so wide as to include everyone.
And worse yet, the Select Committee removed Section 81 – which mandated the requirement to consult with Maori.
If the Member for Rotorua, Stevie, had put up a Bill which was specific to Rotorua, and had those exemptions in place, I would have happily looked to supporting such a proposal.
The Cost of Work
Madam Speaker, I want to just return to the central issue at stake in this Bill – the cost of a decent day’s work. And decent is an interesting concept to ponder further.
Our research says that a comparison of the proportion of employees working fifty or more hours per week among a selection of OECD countries shows that New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of workers putting in long hours of paid work.
Easter Sunday and Good Friday already have significance to Christians as occasions of special meaning. But in the context of concerns about long hours of paid work, we are also concerned about the possible negative effects for families and children of taking out an extra day from an already pressured family calendar. As any of the parents of teenagers in the House could verify, that life is so busy for many of them that one almost needs to text in appointments for ‘family time’ to their busy schedules as it is – let alone, deleting another two days.
In other research, results from the UNICEF/Innocenti International report at the start of this year, threw up a whole lot of hard questions about how much time New Zealand families have to enjoy being together.
Unfortunately, we are lagging behind many other economically poorer countries in variables such as parents spending time with their children; sharing a meal together; giving due attention to their children.
So Madam Speaker, the Maori Party believes we have to start talking seriously about the way in which New Zealanders balance the ever-competing pressures of paid work with the immeasurable value of quality family time.
Workers and families have frequently reinforced that the need to earn enough income, the pressure of workplace practices have made it hard, in fact almost impossible to have a balanced life.
So Madam Speaker, as we all examine our conscience in the process of determining our position, we must not let the importance of whanaungatanga be undermined.
The principle of whanaungatanga recognises that the people are our true wealth; that an investment in whanau will provide a compelling foundation for future growth.
We need to consider the benefits to employersand employees; to ensure that there are protections for workers; and to always hold firm to those who will be with us at the start of the working day, at the end of a working life, and in all the hours in between.
And it is in light of that principle that we must vote against the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill.
ends
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