Instead of exchanging gifts and holiday cheers, South Australia's Labor and Liberal parties are exchanging blows after the government failed to declare Christmas Day a public holiday. Christmas Day falls on a Saturday this year, so the public holiday was moved to December 27. However, a bill was tabled to Parliament requesting December 25 to also be declared as a public holiday. This would have granted workers penalty rates on Christmas Day.
Unions and associations have been calling on the Premier Steven Marshall and the Liberal government to pass the bill as a form of gratitude to essential workers. However, as the first day of December passed, the bill before Parliament to amend the Holidays Act 1910 lapsed.
"Steven Marshall and the Liberals have just voted to kill a bill which would have made Christmas Day a public holiday," the SA Labor said in a tweet, adding on a follow-up post that the premier "voted to ensure thousands of South Australian workers don't get penalty rates on Christmas Day."
Steven Marshall has just voted to ensure thousands of South Australian workers don't get penalty rates on Christmas Day.
— SA Labor (@alpsa) December 1, 2021
This means South Australia will be the only place in the country where Christmas Day is not a public holiday.
Shame! pic.twitter.com/ZqUa31VNWy
The Liberals addressed the matter in a later statement, where they pinned the blame on the "remarkable act of stubbornness" of Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas and the Labor...
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