Barry Soper: Public holiday promise a 'deft political move' for Labour

The promise of making Matariki a public holiday will be a safe bet this coming election. Photo / Fraser Gun

Comment: The Prime Minister's proclamation of a 12th public holiday for New Zealand was a deft political move.

Jacinda Ardern's got to be in a position to form a Government to implement it, but if you were laying bets, she'd have to be an odds-on favourite.

It's almost 50 years ago that the last public holiday, Waitangi Day, was created. It was for a short while renamed New Zealand Day to make it more representative.

There's no mistaking the reasoning behind Matariki, it's a Māori celebration of their New Year which in recent years has certainly been growing in recognition.

But then so has Labour's awareness that to retain the Treasury benches it relies on retaining the Māori vote which at times it seems to have forgotten.

It was seen to have dropped the ball at its annual conference as last year drew to a close, choosing Claire Szabo as president over Tane Phillips, the party's long-serving Māori vice-president, and union organiser, who was the clear favourite with the party's growing Māori contingent.

There are 13 current members of the party's Māori caucus in Parliament, with another seven Māori knocking at the door this election. Labour now holds all seven of the Māori seats with the demise of the Māori Party at the last election but the defeated party is standing candidates in all seven seats next month and has even managed to talk its way into a television debate.

Read More

• Election 2020: Support, criticism, confusion around Matariki as public holiday - NZ Herald
• Election 2020: Labour promises to make Matariki a public holiday - NZ Herald
• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Matariki, child poverty and being called 'Cindy' - NZ Herald

Labour, and in particular Jacinda Ardern, threw themselves into the land occupation at Ihumātao, preventing the legal owner Fletchers from beginning its house building project. More than a year later that's still unresolved and so is the frustration of Māori, although the MPs who rely on Labour for their jobs are fiercely loyal to Ardern.

Māori caucus chair Willy Jackson has become her cheerleader, just last month declaring her "an angel."

Jackson said their natural instinct was to fight and scrap with the Opposition "and she just somehow gets us away from all that, she has got that old style where we are better, we don't have to engage, we don't have to pass information, we don't have to tell on other MPs, we are better".

Few if any Māori would argue with Ardern's decision on Matariki even if businesses which will have to pay the price for the new public holiday would.

Ardern will be hoping Matariki, which signals the aligning of the stars in the depths of winter, will be enough for them to remain sparkling for her this election.