Clark David: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clark David: Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9003. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) 
: 
 I am enjoying the passage of this Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) Amendment Bill. I want to place on record from the outset my thanks to all of those parties in Parliament that are supporting this bill: to my Labour colleagues the Green Party New Zealand First the Maori Party United Future Mana and Brendan Horan. They have all pledged their support for this bill and without it this bill would not pass through the House. It indicates several things: the popularity of this bill the fact that it is common sense and that it restores to ordinary Kiwis the 11 public holidays they expect to receive every year. 
The bill has been universally popular since it was made clear that commemorations will still occur on the same days that they always have—that is 6 February for Waitangi Day and 25 April for Anzac Day. The fact that a holiday follows on the Monday that follows a weekend occurrence of those days is what changes. We have a bill that makes sure that we have those 11 holidays every year. That gives those holidays the full recognition that other holidays have. 
I would like the National Party to consider its support for this bill also. In some polls more than 80 percent of New Zealanders support this bill. In the only quantitative survey that has been done 87 percent of small and medium sized business owners are either in support of or neutral toward this bill. New Zealand knows that this is a fair idea. It makes sure that ordinary hard-working Kiwis get the holidays they deserve every year. So I want the National Party to get in behind this bill. 
I want John Key to get in behind this bill. His suggestion today in Parliament that ordinary Kiwis could not be trusted to front on Anzac Day is a disgrace. It is an outrage. Millions of ordinary Australians turn out on Anzac Day year after year after year. Their turnout is increasing. Mondayising has worked in Australia; it should work here too. If ordinary Australians can turn out for commemorations I want to think that ordinary New Zealanders can too. For the Prime Minister to suggest otherwise is an embarrassment. So just to be clear on that for John Key’s point to hold he would have to think that Christmas and New Year would not be held in such high regard if they fell on a weekend. Does he not remember 2010? Did Kiwis decide on Christmas morning that they would not get up and open their presents? Or Christians that they would not go off to their church services because there was a holiday 2 days later? I do not think so. I think that is a nonsense position to take. 
Ordinary Kiwis will honour these days and commemorate these days because they are of growing importance to New Zealanders. They are about our pride and our identity as New Zealanders they are of growing importance to all of us and they should have the full recognition that other holidays have. As Marcus Lush said on the radio you would have to be the Grinch to oppose Mondayisation.