Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Speaker and it's a great pleasure to speak on this piece of legislation Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki/Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill. Now it's very interesting: the National Party certainly supports the idea of a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. And what you have here in the bill is ensuring that over the next 30-odd years the holiday will be celebrated on the Friday adjacent to the weekend closest to the Tangaroa lunar phase—the point in the lunar month as the Minister would have explained where the last quarter moon rises—of the month of Pipiri in the Māori calendar the period typically around June and July. So what we're talking about is an important idea and principle in Te Ao Māori the Māori sort of world view. And of course some groups have different views within Māoridom—that this is a time sometimes thought of as the start of a new year. So the idea of having a public holiday celebrating that and drawing attention to those ideas and those views of the Māori world we support. The slight issue however is that if they were to replace one of our many other public holidays—say Labour Day would be a good one to start with—so that we weren't creating additional public holidays but we were reshuffling the public holidays reflecting the passage of time then we would support this legislation. But that of course is not what this Government is doing and so we won't be supporting this legislation. Why? Because what we have here in this Government currently is one that seems to think that the purpose of government or the role of good government is just to throw treats in terms of additional public holidays or various entitlements out through the passage of law. This is just one of many that they've done over the last couple of years. So there's the idea: OK we'll pass a law and have an extra public holiday. We have 11 so far this year; also workers have an entitlement to 20 days' leave so 31 days in total. Then a few months ago they passed another law which is to say you can have an extra week of sick leave—up to two weeks. So that's fine and then they'll pass another law saying that we'll increase the minimum wage very significantly from about—it was around $16 when this Government came into power; up now past $20 and higher all the time. But the problem is that the Ministers who stand up here and pass these laws and puff out their chests and say How wonderful we are and what good people we are" they're not the ones who are paying the bill. It's the private businesses that have to pay for it. So the legislation is passed and the Minister stands up there and says "Aren't we wonderful generous people because we're going to give you an extra public holiday." but somebody else has to pay for it and unfortunately the reality is that collectively all these additional costs are not insignificant. They make it more difficult for people to stay in a position to continue to employ other New Zealanders and to keep their businesses alive and competitive.Hon Stuart Nash: What rubbish.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: And the Minister says "What rubbish." Well of course. What would he care—what would he care? I mean if you just add on—Hon Stuart Nash: So are you going to roll back the minimum wage or reduce the number of holidays workers have?Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: So what you would say is the Minister seems to imply that adding additional costs on to business by substantially increasing the minimum wage—under the National Party the minimum wage was increased regularly but by the volume and increase of the minimum wage—doesn't have an impact on businesses. That just shows how deluded and out of touch this Government has become—deluded and out of touch. So what we have is a Government that genuinely seems to believe how you improve incomes in this country is simply by Government fiat—by legislation. You come into this House you're a Minister you puff out your chest and you say "We're going to increase wages: by increasing the minimum wage here by increasing the entitlement to sick leave here by giving you another public holiday." But they don't seem to understand that the only sustainable way—the only sustainable way—to increase incomes in this country is to have a more productive economy that produces things that the rest of the world is prepared to pay for and never ever would you hear from Minister Stuart Nash or any of the others any talk about how we are going to focus on improving our international competitiveness as a country. No. You wouldn't hear that. You wouldn't hear that at all and you wouldn't hear much in the way of improving productivity and therein lies the problem. So we're not prepared to be party to just these incessant additional costs on to the people the New Zealanders who are running the small businesses up and down this country who have been through the absolute mill through COVID over the last couple of years struggling to stay alive stay in business many of them—and particularly in the hospitality and tourism sector. They look at this and they say "Well heck yet one more opportunity"—yet one more opportunity—"to add costs to the business." And the Minister sort of implies that there's nothing much involved here. The regulatory impact statement thinks that the cost will be somewhere around $443 million annually. Well fiddlesticks I suppose in the big scheme of things for this Government. I mean who cares $440-odd million—not a big deal—and why is that? Because it's just another day of production taken out and then there's additional wage payments and loss of income. Now of course everybody wants more holidays. I can understand that and I can understand why all the submitters think it's a good idea. And like I say the principle of having a Matariki holiday we agree with and we're very happy about that but what we would have liked to have seen is just some recognition—just a moment's recognition from this Government—of the difficulties of staying in business and staying afloat and recognising that now maybe—maybe—this is just not the time for yet more entitlements in this country. And maybe they could have considered Labour Weekend as a good alternative to remove. I don't know why we don't have a "National Weekend" that I'm aware of. We don't have an "ACT Weekend" but we have a Labour Weekend and maybe it's time in history that it's moved on and we replace Labour Weekend with Matariki and that would be fine. Then we would have been able to support this piece of legislation.And you might say it's a little thing. One day extra holiday—what difference does it make? But the point that we would make is that this is just one of many things that this Government has done on a regular basis coming into this House time and time again Ministers announcing new things new entitlements for workers that they're not paying for; that private businesses are paying for. Those are the businesses that employ New Zealanders. They're the businesses that create exports that create our wealth and need to be internationally competitive. And they also are the businesses that charge us for things. The cost structure that underlies those businesses is what flows through to the cost of living and as every New Zealander knows the cost of living is going through the roof. Everything is more expensive. And the cost structure that our economy is based on is actually relevant in this context. So that is why we applaud the thinking behind this bill in terms of creating a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. We look forward to that celebration. We just wish there was as much empathy and as much thinking for the needs of the small and medium sized businesses up and down this country and their ability to stay profitable and in a position to continue to employ New Zealanders. I wish there was as much thought and empathy given to them so that they could have substituted one of the existing holidays rather than creating an additional one right here right now."