There's a campaign to create a public holiday for Matariki, the celebration of the Māori New Year.

So far there's an online petition with about 14,500 clicks on it.

The people driving it say making Matariki a permanent public holiday would provide communities with an opportunity to learn about the Maramataka (Māori lunar calendar), celebrate new beginnings, slow down our busy lives and share kai with the people we love.

Sounds lovely.

And I can't see any harm in that. Can't see much of a benefit, but no harm.

The Prime Minister has said that more public holidays are on the list of things her government is “actively considering”. She thinks it would be good for domestic tourism.

And of course it's easy to say that when you don't have to shut your business for a day, pay staff for the time off, or pay the equivalent of 2 and a half days for people who do come in on the holiday.

Yet again, Jacinda excels at spending other people's money.

Now, Peter Dunne has weighed in, he's also in favour of a Matariki holiday, Matariki is uniquely New Zealand he says and as such, it deserves special recognition.

All well and good, but we already have a uniquely New Zealand holiday on Feb 6th every year, plus Anzac Day.

Here's the thing.

We already have 11 public holidays each year.

There's an easy way to sort this out, which would be to scrap one of the other holidays we have now and replace it with a Matariki Day.

But which one, not Christmas, nor Easter.

And not Queen's Birthday, which Mr Dunne would get rid of, he says it's incongruous.

Which is daft, last time I looked we still have the British ensign on our flag.

There's only one candidate left and that's the day after New Year's Day.

Given other aspects of our unique culture...especially around the way we welcome New Year, I wonder how many people would be willing to sacrifice that?