Matariki holiday promise

What New Zealanders want: PM

BUSINESS groups in the South are frustrated and surprised the Labour Party wants to add a new public holiday and would prefer more focus on a Covid19 recovery.

The Labour Party says it will make Matariki a public holiday if elected and it would be on a Friday or a Monday during the lunar cycle Matariki celebrations fall on, from 2022.

Matariki is the Maori New Year and begins with the rising of the Matariki star cluster.

In 2020 Matariki was celebrated during the week of July 13.

Labour would convene a group of experts to help decide the exact date for what would be this country’s 12th public holiday.

Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan described the proposal as a big surprise.

‘‘. . . really, we’d like to see some pretty strong plans put in place for a recovery and the biggest news [yesterday] is we’re contemplating another public holiday.’’

It would put a cost on already struggling businesses, he said.

‘‘For some they’ll be closed, and for some they’ll have to pay a higher rate and time in lieu.’’

Mr McGowan supported the idea of swapping another holiday for a new Matariki day.

‘‘We’ve got quite a few public holidays.’’

The Otago Southland Employers Association was also supportive of removing another public holiday to make room for Matariki, which it described as having ‘‘important cultural significance’’.

But association chief executive Virginia Nicholls also lamented the extra costs another public holiday would put on businesses.

Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult said he had a clear view on what long weekends meant for his part of the country.

‘‘[They] are fabulous for our economy.

‘‘The whole district fills up. Lots of people come here and we have money to spend. Certainly it works well for us.’’

Additional cost for businesses would be outweighed by increases in turnover with more people coming in from out of town, Mr Boult said.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said a Matariki public holiday was what New Zealanders wanted.

“As I’ve travelled around New Zealand I’ve heard the calls for Matariki to become a public holiday. It’s time has come.’’

Ms Ardern said the holiday would provide what many sectors needed.

“Matariki will be a distinctly New Zealand holiday and a time for reflection, celebration and to look to the future as we take increasing pride in our unique national identity.’’

She said New Zealand did not have as many statutory holidays as other OECD countries.

Deputy Labour leader Kelvin Davis said a Matariki holiday would give Maori a chance to share its traditions and history with the rest of New Zealand.

“None of our current public holidays recognise Maori culture and tradition.

‘‘Making Matariki a public holiday is another step forward in our partnership as a people and a further recognition of te ao Maori in our public life.’’

MATARIKI should be made a public holiday. It is at least as relevant as the holidays we have and it has much more potential to help us further express what it means to be a New Zealander.

The matariki star cluster appears fleetingly during winter. In the Maori lunar calendar, the appearance of the nine stars low on the northeast horizon signals the start of a new year.

Matariki is full of possibility. Supported by stories passed down the generations, it is a time to remember those lost, to reflect on the past, and to celebrate new beginnings.

It is taught and experienced in schools, and it is celebrated in public events and gettogethers across the country. It is a mystery to an increasingly small minority.

It is a mystery, though, that it has yet to be made a public holiday in a country that, before now, has been wealthy and progressive enough to consider giving people more days off.

As time passes and modern New Zealand seems further removed from the traditions supporting the likes of Labour Day, it seems remarkable matariki failed to make the holidays cut.

Parliament has been under pressure to make it a holiday since at least the mid2000s, when Maori Language Commission chief executive Haami Piripi suggested it was time for a change.

Mr Piripi did not say New Zealand needed another holiday. Instead, he said it should consider Matariki as an able — and hyperlocal — replacement for Queen’s Birthday.

Maori Party MP Rahui Katene later drafted a private member’s Bill to make Matariki a public holiday. She told MPs it was a very special time of year for Maori, with many symbolic meanings.

What other days celebrate the indigenous people of our land, she asked. It was time to ‘‘treasure our past. New Zealanders will embrace it, we need to find things to connect us’’.

Her Bill was drawn from the ballot and was supported by all but the National Party and Act. National Party MP Simon Bridges said he supported her purpose, but it was not necessary to have a public holiday to respect Matariki.

A decade and a pandemic later, the Labour Party has revived the concept of a ‘‘distinctly New Zealand holiday and a time for reflection, celebration’’.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday confirmed the extra holiday the Government was considering as part of its Covid19 response would be the holiday thousands of petitioners wanted.

It was a time to ‘‘look to the future as we take increasing pride in our unique national identity’’ — it was also time to add to, rather than swapout, the days on the holiday list.

Matariki is marked at different times across the country. There will be plenty of consultation as to when it should be celebrated but whatever happens, it will help make a long weekend.

The argument goes this will boost the ailing tourism and hospitality industries — but this is also where the argument for Matariki becomes an argument against ‘‘imposing’’ costs on businesses that can illafford it.

National Party finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith says more New Zealanders want to celebrate Matariki, but that it should replace an existing holiday. Business New Zealand says it understands the cultural argument but that Matariki should replace one of the other public holidays. Act suggests Labour abolishes Labour Day.

A new holiday means new costs, and new costs will be a difficult sell in an economic environment made uncertain by a jobshattering global pandemic. This will surely provide the strongest argument against Matariki becoming our newest holiday.

Labour wants Matariki on the calendar by 2022. This will give businesses time to plan and for Parliament to consider whether replacing another holiday makes better economic sense.

And there will be the next hurdle, should it come to it. Which public holiday is less important or relevant than Matariki?