Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

The story that keeps getting my goat this week has been the accusation that New Zealanders take too many holidays over the Christmas-January period.  It’s burbled along since the weekend. Business owners, economists, Simon Bridges, and talkback callers all alleging that the country closes down for a month and that’s killing our productivity.  But there’s no proof of that and the allegations seem little better than reckons.  Let’s remember that the rest of the Christian world are also off for Christmas-New Year, so we’re not losing competitiveness over that week.  And the northern hemisphere closes down for August while we’re working our butts off.  Maybe some of the people moaning about the summer break have lost track of reality for most New Zealand workers. The minimum statuary leave for most New Zealanders is 4 weeks after a year of employment. 20 precious days that week out over 12 months.   There are four big school holiday periods that parents need to think about.  For