Little claims more public holidays are good for small businesses

Stuff reports:

Meanwhile Labour leader Andrew Little said there needed  to be a proper commemoration of the land wars.

“If we can find a space to have a public holiday I wouldn’t disagree with that either. We are at a time when more and more New Zealanders are comfortable about coming to terms with history both the good and the bad” including remembering the large loss of life in the wars, estimated at about 2750 including 2000 Maori.

Little said he would not rule out a public holiday.

“The first step is to say ‘let’s recognise it let’s have a formal commemoration’. And If we can find a space and a way to honour it, through a public holiday as we do for other conflicts that have led to mass deaths, then I wouldn’t rule it out.” That could include marking other conflicts and historical events, such as the assault on Parihaka.

Options raised for a public holiday that could be replaced have included the various regional holidays, Queen’s Birthday and Labour Day.

Little said many enjoyed their regional holiday, and he wasn’t going to suggest Queen’s Birthday be substituted out “because I said that before once”, but substituting an existing holiday was one option.

He said small businesses could gain from an extra holiday because people went out and spent more. “The economics of it pretty much favours small business.” 

Oh dear. I don;t think Andrew has ever run a small business. First of all he seem to think that every small business is a retailer. Around 25,000 small businesses are retailers. Around 350,000 are not. So the first fail.

The second is that he think any extra business will compensate for paying your staff two and a half times normal rates. It won’t.

And the third is he think people spending more on a public holiday is all new spending rather than just transferring spending that would happen at some other time.

But if this is the economic genius of Labour, why stop at one more public holiday a year to help small businesses. Let’s have an extra public holiday every week – that will be a gold rush of extra money for small businesses.

And people wonder why Labour re not trusted with the economy.