The Queen’s death has prompted no shortage of occasion for reflection at Parliament - in fact a whole week of Parliament Business was pretty much wiped out last week because of it.
This week there was another opportunity for MPs to reflect on their connections to the Queen and her life of service with the passage under urgency of a bill to designate next Monday as a one-off public holiday. But not all the reflections were misty-eyed.
Michael Wood Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
“Public holidays are a day for our nation to breathe, for the relentless focus on work and commerce just to be paused a little bit for one day, to enable us to step back and participate as a society in important national moments. The end of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's remarkable and historic reign is such a moment,” said Government Minister Michael Wood, the MP in charge of the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day Bill.
“This day should be a day in which people and communities across the country can reflect in whatever way is appropriate for them. I believe that people will do that when this bill passes the House.”
The Bill was opposed by ACT and the Māori Party - an unusual pairing - but for starkly different reasons. In the case of Te Paati Māori, the Queen and what she stood for doesn't warrant a public holiday. Its MP Rawiri Waititi explained that he had honoured tikanga by giving people time to grieve for the Queen, but now it was appropriate to express past and current grievances of tangata whenua.
Rawiri Waititi Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
“We must acknowledge the brutal genocidal and ongoing impact of colonialism, of the imperial project that was overseen by the house of Windsor and its forebears, here in Aotearoa and around the world. It is said that at its height, the sun never set on the British Empire. It's hard to fathom, but that one statement is built on the backs of millions of indigenous peoples around the world. The sun never set on their colonialism, on their racism, and on their violence.
“The Crown was built on stolen assets and exploitation of tangata whenua and indigenous peoples all over the world. We cannot support this holiday. This holiday is a torturous and an insulting reminder for us. She said the Treaty has been imperfectly observed, but never tried to remedy this by honouring tangata whenua and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” Waititi said.
As for the ACT Party, its comments on the recent Matariki Public Holiday Bill had already made clear that it sees public holidays as a scourge to businesses throughout the country, with its MPs estimating that the new holiday would cost the economy $450-million, a figure Wood disputed. However, ACT's leader David Seymour was dead against the holiday and also cited the disruption to the medical care of many people caused by the sudden creation of a public holiday.
“In an excellent speech by Brooke van Velden on the first reading of this bill—of course, it's been rushed through under urgency, so it's all happening tonight—Brooke van Velden pointed out that in one district of Wairarapa, 488 procedures are being postponed that day. One GP clinic has cancelled 122 appointments on that day,” Seymour said.
David Seymour Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
“And if it was true that having public holidays was a pathway to economic growth, then I've got an idea, why don't we have a public holiday every day and we'll all be rich? But of course nobody, including Michael Wood, ever takes the analogy that far because they know it's bollocks. They know it is voodoo economics, and it does not make people wealthier. I know one person who always appealed to logic and reason and common sense and avoiding such mythical beliefs, and that, of course, was our fallen Queen, Queen Elizabeth II.”
With all the accolades heaped the Queen’s way, the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March pointed out that many other people had given their lives to service too
“I think of the grandmothers, the community workers, and the many people from Aotearoa who give their lives to improve the wellbeing of the world around them,” he said.
Ricardo Menéndez March Photo: Phil Smith
“So the Green Party is happy to support this bill as it will give people an opportunity to slow down for their physical and mental wellbeing. But, more importantly, it also allows us—in the same breath as my colleague Jan Logie—to not just mourn, as some people may be also standing in solidarity with indigenous communities from here in Aotearoa to people in the Pacific and people in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and many other countries who will be thinking of the Queen in a different light.”
The critical statements were all too much for National MP Judith Collins who was quietly outraged on behalf of the queen, who she described as “an amazing human being”.
“She was also, by the way, the representative of the Treaty partner to tangata whenua. So when I hear her and who she represents disrespected in this House, I am disgusted. I like, instead, the respect that I expect will be shown by other members of this House towards this very gracious person,” Collins said.
So the Bill to create this one-off memorial holiday is to be signed into law. Interestingly, because the Governor-General is overseas, having attended the Queen’s funeral, it falls to the Government Administrator, Dame Susan Glazebrook, to sign this piece of legislation and provide the appropriate Royal assent.
Judith Collins Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
