Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Kia ora Minister. Thank you for making yourself available this evening to answer some questions about the bill. I'd like to ask about the basis for the timing of the dates that Part 2 provides for. So Part 2 clause 6(2) says that the Order in Council for each public holiday must specify a date that's a Friday and that's in the calendar year following the last time we had Matariki. OK we understand that.When you look at the next part the Order in Council must be made at least four years before the last date in the Schedule—in other words it's forecasting four years ahead—we can see why that would have some benefit into allowing businesses and communities to plan.But that's pretty much the extent of the thinking that appears to have gone into the way that the date for Matariki is chosen to be observed because when I go and look at the actual dates that are specified they're all over the place. We've got a 24 June a 14 July and then we've got a 6 July and an 18 July. It just indicates that while the intention of the observance of Matariki around the appearance of a star cluster which in the Northern Hemisphere—particularly in Japan it's actually known as Subaru. So it's the same star cluster Subaru. That may be familiar to people who are familiar with the Subaru brand of cars which also features on the decal. The emblem for the Subaru is actually the Seven Sisters the seven stars that Māori describe as Matariki.So I think it's important that we acknowledge that there is a good reason why Matariki may be observed in New Zealand but when we look at the proposed dates and days it's very difficult to understand what the reasoning is.Then we need to understand what the implications are. So the implications are for the first date for it to be observed in June 2022 on 24 June 2022. That's not school holidays. That means the Friday of the day that it will be first observed is a day where secondary school students will be getting ready to play rugby the next day and other winter school sports. Senior students and university students will be studying for exams because this date falls a couple of weeks before the school holidays Minister. This is the time when most families are incredibly busy—students and young people are actually working hard on their schoolwork and university work and the rugby season netball and other winter sports are really really ramped up. It's an important part of the season and that's often when parents want to make absolutely sure that their children are fit and well and attending their school sports. Schools depend on it and clubs depend on the kids being there turning up on the Saturday to play.The chances that those parents are going to decide to take a random Friday off in the middle of winter to go some place at a time of the year when New Zealand's weather is notoriously damp even in places like the winterless North or the almost tropical Auckland where I live where my hibiscus are still blooming and my frangipani are still in full bloom—I can tell you that 24 June is still a very cold damp time even in Auckland.One of the members over here mentioned potentially it's the ski season. Well I can tell you from my personal experience having spent many many seasons at Mount Ruapehu that there is no snow to ski on on 24 June. [Interruption] Well I wouldn't know about the South Island Mr Bayly or Mr Smith but if you're suggesting that one of the benefits of Matariki is that some very privileged people could go skiing then that's not one that's actually mentioned in the bill.So there is a problem that the date that is selected and the method for choosing the date does not recognise things like is it during the school term or is it not because it makes a material difference to the way people plan their lives plan holidays and choose what's important for their children in particular and young people attending university and school.I would like to compare that to Christmas and New Year's Day. That is where we need to understand how these things are chosen because we're all aware that Christmas Day is based on the solstice. That's the time when the sun reaches its zenith in the south and its nadir in the north. In fact we go further back Christmas is based on an ancient festival of Saturnalia. So look if we're going to say we're going to pick the day of every calendar year when the star or the sun or the thing appears over the horizon or does its thing then it would be impossible to plan for businesses for families for community events. You would never be able to plan with certainty when to paint the gnomes when to get the Christmas decorations out if Christmas moved around every year. That's one of the risks with Matariki as a holiday that New Zealand is expected to observe.It will potentially lose its relevance when it moves around between June and July—potentially a month a month or so—Hon Stuart Nash: Like Easter.SIMON COURT: Well and Mr Nash here mentions Easter. Look in that Minister's role as the Minister of Tourism he should be well aware that there is a major problem with Easter and the problem with Easter is the Easter trading laws that prevent businesses from opening and carrying out their normal trade as my colleague Chris Baillie has rightly pointed out not being able to sell food or alcohol. So as the member Stuart Nash pointed out Easter does move around. The problem is with Easter though that that Minister introduced into the debate is that in fact it's actually not easy to do business.What this bill does is introduce another cup of sawdust into the engine that is the New Zealand economy and that is the hospitality industry and which—because of course those businesses will still remain open on this day. This isn't necessarily going to be a day when everybody packs up the car in the middle of winter and decides to go off on a three-day or one-day holiday to visit family in other regions in the middle of winter when the days are extremely short and the nights are long and the weather's typically pretty poor. Actually those businesses are going to continue operating. All it's going to be is they're going to have to pay their staff extra over salary or wages for the pleasure of operating on a day that the Minister in this Government designates as Matariki and they're going to have to give them a day in lieu and all of that is going to add to the cost of business that is sawdust in the engine of the New Zealand economy.If this Government was really honest about improving productivity as they say they are with the fair pay agreements and all of these other things—if they were really honest about improving productivity what they'd say is we're not going to pass a single law that's going to affect the ability of businesses to operate in the current environment. We certainly wouldn't impose hundreds of millions of dollars of costs on those businesses as the Minister has suggested.So when we come back to this is a Friday" and a Friday in the middle of winter on a cold short day close to the shortest day of the year the winter solstice that is not going to be a day that's going to see a massive amount of economic activity in response to this day that the Government designates as a public holiday.So look while we all appreciate that there is a role to observe Matariki the New Year that Māori observe in our calendar that is important to impose those costs on business and to impose this calendar that Part 1 through Schedule 1 and Schedules 2 3 and 4 imposes on business—that is completely unacceptable to the ACT Party. It is as I've said sawdust in the engine of the economy. It's not going to deliver healthier communities. It's not going to deliver a healthy economy. In fact it's disappointing because rather than an opportunity to bring New Zealanders together through passing the legislation now and insisting on dumping all of these costs into the economy which will force up the price of everything at a time of massive inflation it's actually more likely to cause division than bring people together.The challenge that I would lay down to the Minister and to the Government is if they wished to impose a new public holiday on New Zealand they should choose one to remove—they should choose one. The ACT Party says that should be Labour Day. We don't actually need a holiday named after the Labour Party. I mean do you think there will ever be a holiday named after the ACT Party—"ACT Day"? Well I'll tell you what—it could be a day in October 2023 after the next election. They could be calling that "ACT Day" but we won't be asking for that to be made into a public holiday and forcing businesses and communities to observe it. Thank you Mr Chair."