Tomorrow, not tonight

Andrea Vance reports at Stuff:

The Government has rescinded its threat to veto the Mondayisation bill, which seems set to pass tonight.

That would be most surprising as members’ bills are only debated on every second Wednesday and today is Tuesday,

The private members bill, introduced by Labour MP David Clark, is up for a crucial second reading and looks to have the numbers. It would give Kiwis a Monday off when Waitangi Day and Anzac Day fall on a weekend.

National had rejected the Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day) Amendment Bill. Last year Finance Minister Bill English said the Government would use a financial veto to oppose it.

However, speaking from Brazil this morning, Prime Minister John Key said it had now decided not to exercise that power.

The “lineball call” decision was made at a caucus meeting three weeks ago.

That is the right decision. The financial veto should only be used on bills which have a fairly significant financial impact such as the paid parental leave bill. But the impact on the Crown finances of four extra days off every seven years is minimal. Arguably in fact there is no financial impact – just a small drop in work productivity.

Key conceded the cost would largely be borne by the private sector and wasn’t a “huge” bill for the Government.

“It’s a hard cost to quantify because there is a whole lot of factors you have to take into account…we pretty much reserve the veto for government expenditure.”

Most private sector employers aren’t really too worried by this bill either. We budget for employees to have 11 public holidays a year. The fact that some years they only get 9 or 10 isn’t something that employers get excited over.

We Mondayise pretty much all other holidays, so including Waitangi and ANZAC Days just means w are being consistent.