Move to make Christmas Day a public holiday in SA passes Lower House but unlikely to proceed   
ABC News.
Wed 17 Nov 2021

Union members protest at Parliament House to make Christmas Day a public holiday in 2021.(ABC News)

South Australia's Lower House of parliament has passed legislation to make Christmas Day a public holiday, but with a major amendment that could scuttle any chance of the bill passing into law.

Key points:
Christmas Day falls on a Saturday in 2021
The public holiday has been declared for Monday not Saturday
An independent MP has moved to make it a public holiday while removing the Christmas Eve half-day public holiday
With Christmas landing on a Saturday this year, the public holiday is instead declared for the following Monday, December 27 in South Australia.

It means most South Australians working on Christmas Day will not be awarded penalty rates, something Labor and the Greens have been lobbying to get changed.   

Under the state's current arrangements, brought in under Labor, staff who work on Christmas Eve get penalty rates if they work from 7pm to midnight.

Independent MP Troy Bell today successfully moved a motion supported by Liberal members in the House of Assembly to get rid of the half-day public holiday this year but add Christmas Day as a public holiday.

"I just think we get the balance right between our small business owners and the employees," Mr Bell, a former Liberal, said.

"Our small business owners will be paying penalty rates for Christmas Day, the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday — so it's four days over that Christmas period."


Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell says workers will be better off under his amendment.
Mr Bell said his amendment brought South Australia into line with most other states.

"In actual fact, it's a net benefit to workers, because we go from the current situation, which is three-and-a-half days to four full days," he said.

"In my opinion, workers be better off overall."

The change will only come into effect when Christmas Day falls on a Saturday.

Move set to fail in Upper House
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said the decision was incredibly disappointing, with the bill now in a very different format to its intention.

"For those people who are working on Christmas Eve, they are now worse off," Mr Malinauskas said.

"To say that is a poor outcome in the view of the Labor Party is a grave understatement."

"Parliament is now in an insidious position where it has to choose between Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.

"The Liberal Party think that somehow they've come up with an alternative arrangement — some slippery manoeuvre."

The bill will now have to go to the Legislative Council, but Labor and the Greens say they will not support the amendment, making it unlikely to pass.

That means the Christmas Eve half-day public holiday will remain, but Christmas Day will be treated like any other Saturday.

Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association state secretary Josh Peak said workers affected would include people working in bars and restaurants, as well as supermarkets and department stores.

"There's going to be thousands of workers that as a result of this are worse off," he said.   

Boxing Day is not a public holiday in South Australia; instead the state's founding is marked with Proclamation Day on December 28.

I haven't seen penalty rates in 25 years.

But there were annual bonuses, shame the grubberment took half each time.

whiteknight wrote on Nov 19^th, 2021 at 8:16am:


I think it appropriate that if someone works on what is a public holiday or outside their normal working hours, they should be rewarded.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Casualisation of the workforce has all but eliminated this, with the threat that if you don't do the hours, you could easily be replaced.

I got into management many years ago.
There is no penalty rates in management.
There is a higher pay rate and you are "expected" to put in some additional hours.
Bonuses also take some of the sting out of it as well, overall, its not a bad gig.

With howard the cowards "Work no choices" exercise, many, many workers signed off their penalty rates for small pay rises.
In time, I believe that all workers will be casual, with none of the benefits and at wages commensurate with full time workers rather than a casual rate with built in concessions.

Karnal wrote on Nov 20^th, 2021 at 1:49pm:


That's what you get when you do things Howard's Way... an unmotivated workforce ain't gonna work for you .... if you're an asshole nobody will work for you.. if you rob your workers they will get back at you..... stoopid is as stoopid does ......

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Nov 20^th, 2021 at 1:54pm:


True, but people are also changing their priorities. Covid has inspired people to give up pointless production and consumption, just for the sake of it.

The workplace has been deconstructed. The household has become the dominant social unit, the nuclear family the primary social organ.

CBDs have become ghost towns, even after the lockdowns. The suburbs and many regional centres are now booming. There's a shift away from cities for the first time since the gold rushes.

Capitalism itself is being reconfigured. Governments have moved back to the centre of planning and investment. Global supply chains have been re-routed. Globalisation is being reshaped.

China is already surpassing the US in some economic measures. Highways and high-speed rail lines are quietly being laid south, throughout South East Asia and west, into Central Asia. As the world shut down for covid, China has quietly been investing and building new global infrastructure, extending its reach, trade, influence.

While China grows, the CCP is internally tightening the screws, becoming stronger. Xi just got a new term, rubber stamped as president for life.

Xi can do this because in China, unlike the West, wages and living standards are growing. China can do the same in other countries, building entire cities from scratch in places like Boten, in Laos. In the midst of poverty, people will accept authoritarian rule to lift their incomes - up to a point.

The developed world has already reached that point, and we're going in another direction. It's not just about bosses, but the nature of work. Covid deconstructed the nature of team-work - the workplace culture and fraternity that gets people engaged and involved and out of bed.

Lockdown and working from home has made us look inwards. Sure, a lot of people have left their jobs because of their over-controlling bosses. Others, those with cars and homes and all mod cons, have had the time to sit at home and wonder: is it really worth it?

The world just changed. Some are waking up. Others - who knows?