SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): It's a reflective moment for me to be able to stand and speak to the second reading of Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill. The first reading of this was on 30 September 2021. I pick up from my parliamentary colleague who has just spoken Tāmati Coffey. A key phrase he talked about was in years to come" so I'm reflective because it's significant—the timing of when things are done. This is a bill that undoubtedly will be passed into law. It will be a calendared marked indigenous New Zealand holiday of significance and relevance. However the significance and relevance in my submission is the timing of this being passed into law.The timing is about priorities that our country has been confronted with and the hardships that have been imposed on our people struck down with COVID the cost implications not just fiscal but the impact on our communities. It's known that the National Party does not support this bill not because of the significance and the cultural relevance of this as a calendared marker within the shaping and history of the nation and where we are striving towards but because of the timing of the impact on our society. It's all very well for members in the Labour Government to diminish the relevance of the fiscal cost and implications.My colleague talked about a Pākehā perspective on this in terms of looking at the cost as it affects our communities. I am a former Māori business owner and I know that many small to medium sized enterprise business owners who are Māori along with non-Māori will carry the fiscal implications of this. We acknowledge and recognise the importance of this as a cultural marker on our calendar. I heard my colleague also mention that he wasn't aware growing up of what Matariki is. Well some of us actually were in terms of the communities and those who shaped and influenced us. Where I come from in Whanganui we celebrate what is called Puanga. Puanga is known as Matariki in other areas and we have celebrated that without the necessity of a calendared public holiday. We have celebrated that because that is culturally significant and relevant in our lived life and experience and we haven't needed legislation to mark this as a significant event in the calendar of our lived experience.The National Party does not diminish the importance of Matariki—or where I come from in Whanganui Puanga—and we will continue to know it is Puanga whether it is going to be calendared as Matariki which it will be. But the concern the National Party has is the timing of this. I believe in the values of the National Party. We espouse and we talk about essentially what is mana motuhake—self-responsibility independence and I reframe that as collective responsibility. I challenge members in the House to think about whether it is a collective responsibility to impose on our employers our small to medium sized and even the bigger-business owners the cost that this will be in a burden upon them.When our country is going into a period of recovery—and I note that the days for Matariki Puanga will be marked off calendared 30 years in advance—from COVID; an economic social and cultural recovery that will take the next 30 years. It will be my children and my grandchildren who bear the cost of this on our society. Is this really responsible Government? Is this the appropriate timing to be passing something that yes is important and feels good—and we acknowledge that—but back home in Whanganui we celebrated Puanga without the need or necessity for it to be calendared in as a public holiday without the incursion of cost on people who are in work. And even those of us who are in work and employed we took time out anyway without that cost being imposed on somebody else—we deemed it a priority to do so without it being calendared as a public holiday.The National Party and I personally support the significance and relevance of Matariki—Puanga—being put into our calendar but is the timing of this really appropriate? As I said this is going to pass into law. The numbers are in the House but for the public who are listening the National Party does not diminish or demean or belittle the significance of this as a marker for the direction that we as a nation are going—and we need to go together not separately. I do not tolerate just because I am a member of the National Party and a Māori member of the National Party that it be suggested for the slur to be that this is about racial preferences and divide—I do not tolerate that or accept that as a Māori or as a Māori associated with a party that espouses mana motuhake. Does this bill really require what has been a marker for those of us who come from lived experience within Māori communities to be locked in as a public holiday?It is going to happen. The National Party is one of pragmatism and priorities and has put it to the Government that Matariki—Puanga—be a holiday in substitution of another party. I submitted that to the Māori Affairs Committee. Of course it did not meet with any approval. I submitted that my birthday happens to fall on Labour Day so I was quite prepared to acquiesce and let that one go but really Madam Speaker and everybody listening: timing is everything. This is going on to the calendar. It is a marker. It will be locked in for the next 30 years but so too will the nation in recovery and my mind and my heart turns to my children and my grandchildren yet to be born because they are the ones who are going to endure the consequences of this COVID. They will also celebrate because it will be locked into law—a Matariki public holiday. But I've raised and nurtured my children also to be practical. There are things that they wanted as children that they simply could not have or receive because of timing and quite frankly what could and could not be afforded were issues taken into account.In conclusion the National Party cannot commend this bill to the House for the very reasons I've indicated. The principle driving Matariki as a public holiday and marker is supported but the timing of the implications on New Zealanders and our business communities certainly has some bearing on cost. I do not commend this bill to the House."