Latest / Best of Business / Kieran McAnulty: Labour MP on his bill allowing alcohol sales on public holidays being voted through to Select Committee

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Kieran McAnulty: Labour MP on his bill allowing alcohol sales on public holidays being voted through to Select Committee · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: A bill to make it easier to buy booze on
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  Speaker 2: public holidays. Who doesn't like the sound of this already
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  Speaker 2: has passed its first reading in Parliament. If the bill
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  Speaker 2: becomes law, licensed premises will be able to sell alcohol
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  Speaker 2: on Christmas Day, Easter Weekend and Anzac Day without restriction,
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  Speaker 2: so long as the business is legally allowed to open
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  Speaker 2: on these days. Anyway, the bill went to a conscience vote.
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  Speaker 2: While it passed sixty seven fifty four, some of Karen
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  Speaker 2: McNulty's labor colleagues voted against it. The laboring Peace with
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  Speaker 2: Us Now Karen good evening, Hey, here go, who's against
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  Speaker 2: a bear on Anzac Day?
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  Speaker 3: Mala. I think we've got to recognize that for a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people, Easter and Christmas is really important and
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  Speaker 3: any suggestion of a change on that is a difficult prospect.
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  Speaker 3: And actually this has been debated in Parliament many, many
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  Speaker 3: times and we've never got it to Select committee. But
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  Speaker 3: I thought about this bill quite a lot and was
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  Speaker 3: really specific about what I'm proposing. Only those businesses that
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  Speaker 3: already open. So the pubs and the restaurants that already
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  Speaker 3: open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but have to
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  Speaker 3: go through this brigmarole of making sure someone's had a
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  Speaker 3: meal before they let them buy a pint. Only those
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  Speaker 3: are the ones that will be affected. And all I'm
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  Speaker 3: saying is they should just if they're already legally able
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  Speaker 3: to open, they should operate like they do every other
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  Speaker 3: day to year.
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  Speaker 2: Does that get the unions on side because their worry is,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you have people opening that otherwise wouldn't open,
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  Speaker 2: and then the staff are forced to work.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the thing is that we have guaranteed days off
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  Speaker 3: for most workers and it's only a couple of year,
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  Speaker 3: and any prospect of changing there is a big deal.
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  Speaker 3: In a much larger conversation to what I'm talking about,
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  Speaker 3: the fact is that only businesses that are already open
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  Speaker 3: and therefore workers that are already working, and in fact,
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  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what I've spoken to hospitality workers will
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  Speaker 3: be pleased to be operating under the rules that a've
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  Speaker 3: been trained under for the rest of the year, rather
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  Speaker 3: than monitoring what someone's eaten in the last hour window
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  Speaker 3: before they know whether they can serve them a pine
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  Speaker 3: to or not.
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  Speaker 2: Are you do you reckon that you'll get the same
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  Speaker 2: amount of support on the second reading.
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  Speaker 3: I hope so. I was really clear with other MP's
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  Speaker 3: last night when we debated the bill. I just want
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  Speaker 3: to be pragmatic. I'm conscious that we've never had any
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  Speaker 3: movement in this area, and if it turns out that
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  Speaker 3: the majority of MPs are uncomfortable with Christmas Day being included,
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  Speaker 3: I'll take it out. I don't care. I just want
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  Speaker 3: to see some movement in this area. The ends that day.
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  Speaker 3: Morning one is particularly important to me. I don't think
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  Speaker 3: RSA should have to go through the process of getting
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  Speaker 3: a special license just to give veterans a drink after
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  Speaker 3: a dawn service or a civic service in mid morning.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's silly. They should be able to operate
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  Speaker 3: like they do it any other day of the year.
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  Speaker 2: You need a job at David Seymour's regulation bashing ministry.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds like it's been right up as out, Karen,
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  Speaker 2: appreciate your time. Kieren Macinali from Parliament will let you
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  Speaker 2: get back into the house.
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