Peter Malinauskas says the government will amend its public holiday bill to include the name and date

Premier Peter Malinauskas responds after state government comes under fire for a public holiday bill which scrapped the words Anzac Day, Australia Day and Christmas Day.

Premier Peter Malinauskas says the government will amend its public holiday bill to include the name of the holiday rather than just the calendar date.

The state government has come under fire for its new public holiday bill which scrapped the titles of Anzac Day and Christmas Day and instead referred to the holidays as their calendar dates.

The opposition had attempted to amend the bill to rename Australia Day, Christmas Day and Anzac Day, but the changes were rejected by the government.

The RSL also urged the government to reinstate Anzac Day into wording of its public holiday laws.

Premier Peter Malinauskas places wreath at an Anzac Day Dawn Service. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

On Monday, Opposition leader David Speirs said Peter Malinauskas “must revert to the traditional public holiday names”.

“Peter Malinauskas must listen to the community outrage and admit Labor got this one wrong – the Premier must recall parliament and sort this public holiday mess out,” Mr Speirs said.

“This is political correctness gone mad.”

Veterans Affairs Shadow Minster Adrian Pederick said he had been contacted by “dozens of angry veterans”.

“Anzac Day falls on April 25, but it’s called Anzac Day for a reason … it’s a special day to honour those living and those fallen who fought hard for the lives that we are fortunate enough to live today,” Mr Pederick said.

“The veterans I’ve spoken to are angry, upset, hurt, disappointed and shocked that Peter Malinauskas thought it was a good idea to cancel the name Anzac Day in favour of April 25.”

However, Premier Malinauskas hit back and told The Advertiser the government’s objective with the new bill was to fix issues with an act more than 100 years old and not remove the titles of holidays.

“I do not lead a government that plays games with the names of public holidays,” he said.

“The bill passed by parliament fixes two problems – Easter Sunday not being a public holiday, and Christmas Day not being a public holiday when it falls on a Saturday,” he said.

“To be clear, the legislation made no changes to the dates of Australia Day, Anzac Day or Christmas Day, which fall on January 26, April 25 and December 25 respectively …

this has been a campaign of deliberate disinformation from the Liberal opposition.

He said the government would amend the act when parliament resumes to avoid confusion.

“To avoid any doubt, I’ve asked our Attorney-General to draft an amendment to the Act that would simply say what the date for each public holiday is, and then in brackets next to it have what that date is for,” he said.