AUCKLAND (Sachin Sharma): Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised to make Matariki a public holiday if re-elected to power in general elections scheduled to be held on October 17.
She made the pledge to mark the start of the Māori New Year while campaigning in Rotorua Monday morning.
"As I've travelled around New Zealand I've heard the calls for Matariki to become a public holiday - its time has come. It will also be a confidence boost that many sectors need right now. Matariki will be a distinctly New Zealand holiday and a time for reflection, celebration, and to look to the future as we take increasing pride in our unique national identity," Ardern said.
The last public holiday introduced in New Zealand was Waitangi Day nearly 50 years ago. With Matariki as public holiday, New Zealand will have 12 public holidays and it would break up the winter period.
Ardern said a group of experts will help determine an exact date but she expected it would always fall on a Monday or a Friday within Matariki. The new holiday an take effect by 2022.
As per party leaders, a Matariki public holiday would help domestic tourism and hospitality sector. Party leaders said Matariki would be the first public holiday that recognised Māori culture and tradition.
A petition set up in May, by Laura O'Connell Rapira from Action Station urging the government to make Matariki a holiday has received nearly 35,000 signatures.
Political parties react to Labour's vow: 'It's not leisure and holiday time' - Winston Peters
Green Party has announced support to make Matariki a holiday.
However, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wasn't impressed.
He said right now work, sacrifice and collective effort was required, not another holiday.
National Party leader Judith Collins said the policy could hurt small businesses.
Collins said some of her team thought it was a great idea, but her concern was that it was another public holiday employers would have to pay for.
"People need to realise too ... that when we look at anything where there's extra cost, particularly on small businesses ... it's actually having a huge effect on the attitudes of people in small businesses in particularm," she said.
"We're going to have an awful lot of holidays for people that they weren't looking for - and those are unfortunately a lot of job losses."
She said she would like to see the evidence the new holiday would help domestic tourism.
ACT Party leader David Seymour accused Ardern of being in "la la land" for the policy vow.
"Anybody who thinks stopping people working will boost the economy is an economic illiterate, and small and medium enterprises can ill afford even more of this meddling," Seymour said.
He also questioned why Labour chose this as one of their first big campaign promises.