SDA campaigns for Easter Sunday public holiday in South Australia

Australia’s other states have left SA looking like “poor cousins”, our biggest union says, as it launches a new push for a new public holiday.

The state’s biggest and most influential union, previously headed by Premier Peter Malinauskas, is urging his government to declare Easter Sunday as a public holiday, backed by opinion polling showing popular support.

The shop assistants’ union will on Sunday launch a campaign for change, arguing SA was the only mainland state in 2022 that did not declare Easter Sunday as public holiday and this is costing workers money.

An Utting Research poll of 600 South Australians, commissioned by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), shows 63 per cent of respondents supported Easter Sunday becoming a public holiday.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Attorney-General Kyam Maher has flagged changes to the Holidays Act 1910, which has not been amended since 2012.

SA currently has 13 public holidays each year, including part-day public holidays on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

But SDA state secretary Josh Peak urged the state government to use declaration powers, rather than waiting for legislation, to make Easter Sunday a public holiday in 2023.

“Our public holiday laws are out of step with the rest of the country, and they are out of step with the views of South Australians,” he said

“South Aussies overwhelmingly support Easter Sunday becoming a public holiday. We have been the poor cousin of the eastern states on this issue for too long – the state government should act now to fix it.”

According to an SDA submission to the government, a 21-year-old, part-time, level-one fast food worker will earn $29.23 an hour on Easter Sunday in 2023.

Comparatively, in ACT, NSW, Queensland, Victoria and WA, this same worker will earn

$52.61 an hour – a difference of $23.38, or 180 per cent, in pay per hour. In an eight-hour shift on Easter Sunday, workers in other states will earn $187 more than SA workers.

SDA state secretary Josh Peak, with retail, fast food and hospitality workers, urging the-then Marshall Liberal government to make Christmas Day a public holiday. Picture: Milly Schultz-Boylen

The SDA is a powerful union nationally, with previous state secretaries including Mr Malinauskas and federal Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell.

As the SDA state secretary in 2014, Mr Malinauskas unsuccessfully lobbied the-then Weatherill Labor government to proclaim Easter Sunday as a public holiday.

At the time, Mr Malinauskas said the omission of Easter Sunday from the public holiday calendar was a “glaring anomaly”.