McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Madam Speaker thank you. It is a privilege to speak on this bill at the first reading and the reason for that is the question of the importance of Matariki is not up for debate today. On our side of the House as with Labour and I think all parties in Parliament the celebration of something that is uniquely New Zealand is important and I'm very pleased the House can set time aside today to be able to discuss that and do so in a respectful manner.National supports the idea of Matariki to be celebrated by New Zealanders and for very many more New Zealanders young and old to learn about it. The last speaker in the debate Tāmati Coffey said that when he was at school it wasn't something because he didn't know about it. And I know he doesn't mean it has been made up; it's just not something that was talked about widely and it's a good thing it is today. My children when they were younger in school and the kids that are joining school today and our kindergartens and our kōhanga reo—they talk about these things they celebrate it they paint the stars and it has meaning for them. So there is no suggestion on this side of the House that it's not important it's not something that should be celebrated it's not something that New Zealanders should be proud of and I say to anybody that is unsure of this to go in and learn to discuss to listen.But the one thing we also need to do is be mindful of all the decisions that we take in this House and their implication. There is always a time for something there is always a time for debate but it is the decisions and the impact and effect that they have that we need to have an open mind to. And I must say that when we heard my colleague from ACT Chris Baillie there was dissent from the Labour benches. This is a respectful debate and it should remain so. This is a House where people can have different views and different opinions. We can agree on things but disagree on the way that they should happen the way they need to take effect.When we hear members opposite actually decide to interject on such an important issue I think it is disappointing and it does a disservice because there will be people at home that are looking for leadership from this House to understand why this is important why Parliament is setting aside time to discuss it and debate it and whether or not it should be important to them because as with Mr Coffey they won't have known about it when they were at school.National is not supporting this legislation not because of the intent—that is accepted—but we do believe that at a time when so many New Zealanders are doing it so very very hard if the Government wants to celebrate this as we want to celebrate it it should be in place of an existing public holiday not an additional public holiday. I'm all for people actually having choice and I'm all for people you know taking time off choosing to spend time with their families if they want. But every single member of this House that takes the time to check their inbox will be hearing from businesses who are run by mums and dads hard-working Kiwis who are doing it tough and they are saying to us We need more support. We need more help. If our businesses are to survive in Auckland or any other part of the country because of the great great impact that COVID has had upon us we need your help to be able to go to work and to trade more and to be able to earn money to pay our bills. We want to support our families we want to be able to spend time with them but we want to go back to work."So when we talk about on this side of the House the need to support business and we say another public holiday is an additional burden upon them we say cost—it is a burden upon them. We are talking about hard-working Kiwis or every single ethnicity and walk of life that are doing everything that this Parliament and this country are asking of them and it is just too hard for them. And I do feel that this sends the wrong signal to those New Zealanders about how we support them to do better for themselves.I would love us to be able to double or triple the number of public holidays we have in New Zealand so people could take more time with their families to do whatever it is that they choose to do. But we are not a wealthy country—we are not a rich country—and we need to back Kiwis to be able to back themselves to work hard. This will impose costs on businesses large and small. The large ones will bear the costs—they'll pass it on to the consumers who already are finding it hard to pay their bills. The small ones who are struggling as a result of the cost burden the Government has placed upon them and the small ones that are struggling because of the significant cost and impact that COVID has had upon them are not being done a service today; they are being done an injustice—not because they don't deserve to celebrate Matariki; they do just as National does but there is a consequence to every decision we make and the consequence of this is that actually for many New Zealanders they no longer get to think about the importance of Matariki; they have to think about how it is they will survive."