Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill

This bill will be debated in clauses. We come first to clause 1, the debate on the title. The question is that clause 1 stand part.

Thank you, Mr Chair. So we’re debating this Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill and the National Party has been opposed to this bill, not because—I mean, everybody would like anybody that is sick not to have to go to work. We’re very conscious of the implications around the COVID situation that we’ve had, that we don’t want sick workers at work.

In a perfect world there would be no restrictions on sick leave. But we also live in a practical world, and when we think of business operations, I don’t think of the very small number of very large business operations that operate in New Zealand. We recognise that by far and away most businesses in New Zealand are small, with fewer than 10 employees—in fact, fewer than five employees. And if you put yourself in the shoes of those business owners, little cafe owners, small-business owners right across the country—in the tourism space, in the hospitality space, or a small forestry group—many, many thousands of small little businesses in this country, run by mum and dad owners, often having mortgaged their own house to fund the company and the business, are struggling from GST payment to GST payment. It’s that context where we are conscious of the fact that this Government has been very quick to add substantial costs to those businesses, with what appears to be an insouciant shrug of the shoulders by the Minister, Michael Wood—oh well, it’s not a big deal, they can soak it up.

So I suppose the key question I have for the Minister is: what impact do you think it will have on the small-business owners’ ability to remain in business by adding these costs, which is—

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Sorry to interrupt the member, but we’re on clause 1, the title. It wouldn’t take much for him to bring what he’s said so far into relevancy on—

Are we having a strict debate just on the title?

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Yep, yeah. So unless some honourable member—

We don’t usually start with the title, we usually start with the broader thing so we can actually debate the topic before—

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): As I started off at the beginning, it’s clause by clause, unless some honourable member would like to seek leave to debate it as one, then we’ll do that.

Point of order. I seek leave for the Holidays (Increasing Sick Leave) Amendment Bill to be considered as one debate, with questions on clauses put separately.

Leave has sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is none. Given that situation, I’m going to restart the clock for the member.

Clauses 1 to 6 and the Schedule