Henare Tau: Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill — First Reading 
Henare Tau: Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5705] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I start by posing this question: why do we try to find legitimisation from Parliament when we should be finding legitimisation in our communities? I think the idea of Matariki Day is a good one. There is so much good feeling around the issue of Matariki. It is distinctly and uniquely New Zealand. Every indigenous culture around the world recognises Matariki. It is known as Subaru in Japan—and they did not have to legitimise it through Parliament. Mr Twyford shakes his head but I do not think it is necessary—and I apologise to my Maori colleagues for the term I will use—to “tapu-ise” or whakatapu our ideas so much that we spend only one day of the year celebrating or having reverence for Matariki. I am of the opinion that the Government the Opposition and everyone else should spend time in fact the whole month— 
Grant Robertson 
: How does this argument work for Christmas Day? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That member would not understand what Matariki is. He should shut up and listen to a real cultural discussion about Matariki and what it stands for. It is not a public holiday and it should never be a public holiday. But what we should do in this country is recognise the cultural importance of the whole of June as Matariki month. We should think about the leverage we could get from that in terms of tourism sport culture and recognition. We should think about the leverage that Wellington Auckland and every other community could get from having a Matariki month. 
All that Labour members want is another public holiday—that is all it is about to them. Labour members want another day to sit on their fat chuffs and do nothing. They want another day to sit back put their feet up and watch TV. That is all that Matariki is about to the Labour Party. Where are all the Maori members of the Labour Party right now? They are nowhere to be seen. They must be having a BBQ somewhere. Where is Shane Jones? This bill is about a cultural icon that should not be in this House being legitimised or even talked about by the idiots across the way. Members should think about the sort of leverage we would be able to garner overseas if we had a whole month of celebrations about Matariki. 
Grant Robertson 
: It’d be fantastic. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well why does Labour not come up with an idea or two about how we would achieve that? It is pretty simple. 
Grant Robertson 
: Send the bill to the select committee. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The member says we should send it to the select committee. Matariki has been around for a long time but in the last 9 years Labour did not come up with the idea of having a public holiday for Matariki. Now that Labour is in Opposition and does not have to make the decisions it will support this bill. Gone are the times when Labour accused the party who brought it to the House of being haters and wreckers—but that is all right because Labour apologised for that. It is pretty plain and simple that we need to grow up and have our cultural icons as days where communities celebrate in recognition of those cultural events without Parliament saying that we must have a day off and without Parliament saying to the businessmen that they must give somebody a day off. Why do we not take the responsibility for ourselves in our communities? 
Phil Twyford 
: Who thought up this line? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well it certainly was not the Fabians—that is for sure. It is time for New Zealand and her communities to recognise Matariki and celebrate from 1 June until the end of June and not just have another public holiday so that Labour members can sit on their chuffs and do nothing.