Victoria reconsidering Christmas Day as public holiday

Victoria may finally celebrate Christmas Day as a public holiday. Small Business, Innovation and Trade Minister Philip Dalidakis is reconsidering making Dec. 25, Sunday, a public holiday after announcing earlier this week that it would be a working day.

Earlier this week, Dalidakis announced that Christmas Day would be a regular working day, making Victoria the only Australian state or territory not to recognise it as such. Other states have declared Dec. 25 to 27 public holidays.

With Dec. 25 a working day, employees working on that day would not be entitled to public holiday penalty rates. This led to criticisms from workers’ unions, as well as prompting the federal Greens to announce that they would introduce a fair work amendment bill into the parliament.

But it seems Dalidakis would backtrack on his earlier announcement. On Thursday, he told reporters that “maybe I’ve got it wrong.”

“Somebody I respect and value spoke to me about it just the other day – about their experiences as a worker on Christmas Day,” the MP said. “That made me realise that maybe, just maybe I’ve got it wrong. I think in public life it’s OK to sometimes get things wrong if you acknowledge that and look to remedy the situation.”

He will be making a decision after his trade mission to Israel.

Greens MP Adam Bandt, who said he would introduce the “Protecting Christmas” bill into federal parliament after Dalidakis’ earlier announcement, has welcomed the plan to reverse its decision on Christmas Day pay.

“I am rapt to hear that the Victorian Labor government’s plan to ruin Christmas for Victorian workers may now become a ghost of Christmas past,” he said in a statement. “[Victorian Premier] Daniel Andrews and his Victorian Labor colleagues are feeling the pressure from the community, unions and the Greens to make sure people are paid what they deserve for working on Christmas Day.”

The Greens would still introduce legislation to protect people’s public holiday penalty rates if Labor and Andrews failed to act and reverse the decision.