Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. That speech stopped abruptly so excuse me if I was a bit slow jumping up there. This—Paul Eagle: You weren't listening. ANDREW BAYLY: Oh I was listening very carefully to the member on the other side there. What I'm just going to enjoy talking about is the second reading of this bill and of course I don't think there's anyone in New Zealand or even indeed in this House who would not like to have another public holiday. So there's pretty uniform support for this bill in terms of the significance of Matariki—particularly to Māori but also to all New Zealanders—and it's been very useful listening to the contributions tonight. I thought some of the contributions have been very thoughtful in particularly providing a perspective on the importance of Matariki. So the big issue of course is why do we have to have this new additional public holiday—our 12th public holiday? Effectively we already have 31 days of holidays in New Zealand of four weeks' leave plus the 11 public holidays and of course here we are going to pass a bill which says Let's have another one." Our strong view was that we understand the significance of Matariki and agree with the principles of that. But we were just very very keen particularly at a time when people are struggling people are losing their businesses the staff working in those businesses have been under a lot of stress—and we're in a situation where we're going to impose additional costs on particularly the businesses and business owners at a time when they are struggling. Our strong proposition as we've heard tonight is that yes we should do Matariki but we should replace another holiday. Of course the Hon Judith Collins suggested Labour Day which many of us thought was a good recommendation. So effectively we'd end up with a net sum gain but move to a situation where we move away from Labour Day which probably has very little relevance now to one that does have significant relevance to many people who live in New Zealand. So it's just the issue around the cost. I've heard some of the contributions talking about it and we've heard the figures. Nearly half a billion dollars—$450 million - odd—this is going to incur. I heard one of the contributions from a Labour member earlier talking about "Hey there are some significant upsides because it's going to lead to other increases." and no doubt there'll be tourism there'll be mental health issues and all that sort of stuff that it will support. It's useful in terms of having time off—I understand that—but the reality is that the people that pay for this and who do not necessarily get the benefit are the business owners. They are the people who are going to be writing out the cheque to pay for their staff to have another day off. So if the benefit was to accrue back to the same people then I'd accept the argument but it doesn't. The argument is that the cost to this accrues to only one category of person or individual or business owner and that is the big issue about it. When you're talking about $450 million of additional cost at a time when the Government has already imposed an estimated $2.8 billion of additional cost through things like minimum wage increases and all the other allowances they've done we just keep building cost where now it puts the score—particularly for small businesses—well over $3 billion of additional cost that someone's got to write out a cheque for. If it was the Government writing out the cheque for it that's a different point. But this is not. This is a Government who does not respect business owners and thinks they're all good for it and that they should pay for anything and that they can pay for it. That's not the reality unfortunately and this is another half a billion dollars of cost that's going on small-business owners. We support the holiday—that is not the issue. What we are saying is that we should be replacing this for another holiday and allow people to enjoy and celebrate what's important now—particularly and especially with regard to Matariki—but actually remove some of the other legislation that's less important. So look I just think the debate around this has been canvassed tonight. I don't want to talk much more about it. I know the first scheduled date is Friday 24 June and the big issue is: why is it always on a Friday? Of course again the contribution around that is that it makes it nice for a long weekend but again in the scope of trying to look after and support the key powerhouse of the New Zealand economy which is small businesses is that the best thing? Is that the best thing for New Zealand and for New Zealand businesses because after all they are the people that employ most of the people in New Zealand: 97 percent of employees are employed by small businesses. So again we just need to be mindful about how we protect our small business base because as I said they are the powerhouse. I think the Government should have been more cognisant and open to the idea of replacement. I note that the officials put up a number of recommendations none of which the Government took up and so here we are tonight. This bill will obviously go through. We will celebrate Matariki but it's a mistake and it should have replaced another public holiday. Glen Bennett: Which one? ANDREW BAYLY: Labour Day."