Bills

Public Holidays Bill

Second Reading

Debate resumed.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (20:39): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and, notwithstanding your very reasonable acknowledgement of those in the gallery, I think the concluding tone of the member for MacKillop was one of Christmas cheer, which I very much appreciate in what we think might be the last sitting week for the year. I will simply close by thanking all those who have contributed to the second reading debate: a particularly powerfully put case by my colleagues on this side of the chamber—no need for me to repeat—and I commend the bill to the house.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clauses 1 and 2 passed.

Clause 3.

Mr COWDREY: I move en bloc amendments Nos 1 through to 15:

Amendment No 1 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 5 [clause 3(1)(a)]—After '1 January' insert:

(New Year's Day)

Amendment No 2 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 6 [clause 3(1)(b)]—After '26 January' insert:

(Australia Day)

Amendment No 3 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 7 [clause 3(1)(c)]—After 'March' insert:

(Adelaide Cup Day)

Amendment No 4 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 9 [clause 3(1)(e)]—Delete paragraph (e)

Amendment No 5 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 12 [clause 3(1)(h)]—After '25 April' insert:

(ANZAC Day)

Amendment No 6 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 13 [clause 3(1)(i)]—After 'June' insert:

(the Sovereign's Birthday)

Amendment No 7 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 14 [clause 3(1)(j)]—After 'October' insert:

(Labour Day)

Amendment No 8 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 15 [clause 3(1)(k)]—After '25 December' insert:

(Christmas Day)

Amendment No 9 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 16 [clause 3(1)(l)]—After '26 December' insert:

(Proclamation Day)

Amendment No 10 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 17 [clause 3(2)]—Delete '25 December' and substitute:

Christmas Day

Amendment No 11 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 17 [clause 3(2)]—Delete '1 January' and substitute:

New Year's Day

Amendment No 12 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 19 [clause 3(3)]—Delete '26 December' and substitute:

Proclamation Day

Amendment No 13 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 24 [clause 3(4)]—Delete '26 January' and substitute:

Australia Day

Amendment No 14 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, line 26 [clause 3(5)]—Delete 'The' and substitute:

Subject to subsection (6), the

Amendment No 15 [Cowdrey–1]—

Page 4, after line 29—After subclause (5) insert:

(6) A proclamation cannot be made under subsection (5) to declare some other day to be a public holiday in a year instead of Australia Day except in pursuance of a resolution passed by both Houses of Parliament.

(7) Notice of a motion for a resolution under subsection (6) must be given at least 14 sitting days before the motion is passed.

I take the opportunity to speak to the amendments. A number of those were what we deemed off the bat to be administrative errors where to this point I still have not heard a rational argument from the government in the other place, and I suspect I will not hear one in the coming couple of minutes, in regard to why certain public holidays within the bill were referenced by the name of the day and why the government chose to put dates against the others.

To that end, the opposition is moving a series of amendments to essentially give rise to the name of the particular public holiday with the date of the public holiday. It is in line with the official public holidays calendar that SafeWork SA provide each and every year. Funnily enough, the part-day public holidays are listed on this particular calendar. The government, as we said, must have missed those when they put out their press release; I am sure it had nothing to do with putting forward a political message that was not necessarily accurate, and some would even go as far as saying it was misleading.

The other amendments are despite the claims of those opposite, despite the claims of the Labor Party and despite the claims of the SDA, SA Unions and a range of others. What is being proposed here by the government is a substantial hit to South Australian small and family businesses. That is what we are discussing: a hit to those businesses, with not an ounce of consultation undertaken.

I am not going to waste the committee's time to ask what work the government have done to ascertain the impact. I think the member for MacKillop—in part of his contribution to the house, at least—outlined the fact that he and I have the same belief that the government have not done any work to ascertain what the impact actually is for private industry or for the government sector.

It is very clear that for the long list of particular businesses that I referenced earlier—whether that be small cafes, coffee shops, NDIS providers, the aged-care sector more generally, wineries, cellar doors, businesses that operate in regional areas, pubs or the like—the government have not talked to a single small or family business on this change, nor do they understand what the impact will be for those businesses. I am not going to waste the committee's time in making that point again.

What I will say is that it is very clear from those particular organisations that represent small and family business in their firm view—and I talk here again about the AHA, about Business SA, about the MTA, about the Australian Industry Group and the Wine Industry Association of Australia, and I am sure there are many other organisations that represent small and family businesses across the state—that they are going to be impacted the most by these changes, despite the outrageous claims from the government that this is something to do with some nefarious idea that the opposition is tied to big business. We represent small and family businesses on this side of the house. Those are the businesses that are going to be most devastatingly affected by this change.

What we are proposing, on behalf of those groups that represent those small and family businesses across the state, is their agreed position is not to have a net increase in public holidays. Therefore, the most logical move to negate that being the case is simply to swap the Saturday and the Sunday. Nobody is removing anything; those things that are provided to employees on the Saturday would simply shift to the Sunday. There is no change in arrangement but for a direct swap, a direct swap in those arrangements so that those small and family businesses are not worse off. The Premier had a choice and the government had a choice as to whether they wanted to do this in a way that inflicted pain on small and family businesses and they chose to do that.

The last number of amendments deals with providing a safeguard to a potential future government that may or may not wish to change the date of Australia Day at a future point in time. Quite simply, all this does is ensure that it would need to come to this parliament and pass both chambers of this very parliament. There is nothing to fear for those on the other side, unless they have a plan to change the date for Australia Day. That is the only reason that you would vote against this amendment to provide a safeguard to any potential change into the future.

They are the amendments that the opposition are moving en bloc tonight. I look forward to having a discussion around those, should the committee wish, or am happy to put them for a vote.

The ACTING CHAIR (Ms Savvas): Member for Colton, you have just mentioned an amendment put forward by the opposition with respect to amendment No. 15, but originally you stated you were only moving amendments Nos 1 through 14 en bloc. Can I clarify that you are only moving amendments Nos 1 through 14, and not 15 with respect to Australia Day?

Mr COWDREY: Pardon me. Amendments Nos 1 through 16, the full set. My apologies.

The ACTING CHAIR (Ms Savvas): You will not be able to move amendment No. 16; you will only be able to move amendments Nos 1 through 15.

Mr COWDREY: Amendments Nos 1 through 15.

The ACTING CHAIR (Ms Savvas): Thank you. I turn to the Deputy Premier.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Amendments Nos 1 to 3 and 5 to 13 are about giving the colloquial names for each of these public holidays. Somehow, South Australia has survived for 110 years with the Holidays Act without including these names. Somehow we have managed to work out that we have those holidays on those days.

The bill has been drafted to use the names of public holidays only when they move from year to year because they are following a different calendar and we are using the fixed dates for all the other public holidays. Which is the one that is not being moved en bloc?

The ACTING CHAIR (Ms Savvas): That is amendment No. 16.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Not No. 4 then?

The ACTING CHAIR (Ms Savvas): He is moving amendments Nos 1 through 15, not 16.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: In our understanding, Nos 4 and 16 are linked because they are about removing Easter Saturday as a holiday. I will speak to that and we can resolve that through voting. I just indicate that, although 16 is not being moved but No. 4 is, Easter Saturday has of course been a public holiday for 110 years.

I will not repeat the speech that was given so powerfully, particularly by the Treasurer earlier but, as to the idea that you could interchange the Saturday and the Sunday of Easter, I have no god, I am not a religious person, but even I understand that Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday have different resonances and the fact that Easter Sunday is a day when nearly everything is shut. This is not something I am presuming that the opposition is proposing to overturn and yet they are pretending that Saturday and Sunday in Easter are interchangeable.

Further, amendments Nos 15 and 16 are seeking to prevent the public holiday on Australia Day being moved. It is late, it is after dinner, I am not indulging in culture wars. We have 26 January. It is the day that New South Wales was founded by the British. It is the day we have chosen as Australia Day. It is in here. I am not interested in getting into this ridiculous dog whistle of having a different debate within this. This is about worker entitlements.

The committee divided on the amendments:

Ayes 12

Noes 22

Majority 10

AYES

NOES

PAIRS

Amendments thus negatived; clause passed.

Remaining clauses (4 to 8), schedule and title passed.

Bill reported without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (20:58): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

At 20:59 the house adjourned until Thursday 30 November 2023 at 11:00.