Matt Johnston: Grand Final holiday not going anywhere
THERE was a time when the state Opposition was fiercely opposed to the Grand Final holiday but it has recently gone a bit quiet about the day they once decried as “reckless”, writes Matt Johnston.
Opinion
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THIS year, I’m doing something sacrilegious on AFL Grand Final weekend. I’m going away — and probably won’t watch the big game.
This is not because I’m a Blues fan and therefore find it hard to stomach the idea of the Tigers, Pies, Dees and/or Eagles jousting for the flag.
The painful experience of one of those teams hoisting the cup aloft only makes my hunger for a Baggers premiership (or, let’s be honest, a mere finals appearance) grow.
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It’s because I’m taking advantage of our newest public holiday next Friday.
The idea that most people don’t have to go to work because a footy match is being played the next day is as ridiculous as getting a day off to punt on horses running around a track.
But like the Melbourne Cup holiday, it appears the Grand Final holiday is here to stay.
The people have spoken, even if they can only get those words out between laughs.
You may not have noticed, but the state Opposition has recently gone a bit quiet about the public holiday they once decried as “reckless”.
They’re not the only ones.
Even business groups, which warn the change to workplace calendars has sucked about $1 billion a year out of the state economy, know they’re pushing things uphill to get political support for removing the state’s most recent — and 13th — public holiday.
The government’s own modelling released in its first year shows a cost to the economy of up to $898 million a year, although they say benefits could be as high as $312 million.
A myriad small and medium enterprises are hit by extra wages or costs, or who have to shut for an extra day because of the burden, have also grumbled.
But it appears this has failed to move our politicians.
On Thursday, the Australian Industry Group couldn’t even get support for a review after the November election, after previously pleading for the holiday to be shifted to the Monday if not dumped altogether.
And Opposition Leader Matthew Guy told the Herald Sun the day was here to stay because “people don’t want public holidays politicised”.
He said he accepted it was now a part of the Victorian calendar.
His MPs have shifted from hopping mad to hardly offering a croak of resistance.
They have clearly judged that threatening to make people work more might actually weigh down their election prospects.
Many people feel like they’re already working harder as technology changes, for not much more money, resulting in less time at home.
If they are working the same hours, it probably takes longer to commute and many find it harder to squirrel away money for holidays.
I’ve written on these pages before that the Andrews Government has been blessed with good luck when it comes to this policy.
The first and riskiest day it landed on in 2015 had weather you could scarcely dream about.
In 2016, the government was a couple of kicks away from having two Sydney teams in the Grand Final, rendering the pre-game parade a potential farce.
But when the Dogs got over the line against GWS, you could almost hear a collective cheer from Dan Andrews’ staffers hunched over pints at the Imperial.
Last year, Richmond — the first club to crack 100,000 members in the AFL — made its first Grand Final in decades, meaning organisers of the parade were probably more worried about public order than attendance.
This year, the Tigers or the Pies are guaranteed a seat at the big dance. Rail, hail or shine, thousands of ferociously parochial fans will be lining the streets.
But even if those teams weren’t in the mix, I don’t think it would matter any more.
The AFL’s parade was all very important in the holiday’s early years for visuals.
But it was always a smokescreen of sorts.
As Small Business Minister Philip Dalidakis pointed out last year, this holiday wasn’t designed as an economic stimulus — and nor is it a parade day.
It’s about giving people a break.
The public holiday is becoming ensconced and will start to be taken for granted, regardless of whether people want to traipse into the CBD to see their favourite footy stars in open-top cars.
One day, when economic skies darken, our MPs might have a change of heart, of course.
There has been some strong language from Liberals about the merits of this public holiday in recent years but it’s faded.
Most still think it’s stupid, or don’t like the principle. But they have stopped fighting. As one Liberal said: “Even the dries are giving in.”
There’s another extra public holiday in Victoria that was added to the state’s calendar by the Andrews Government — Easter Sunday. That change means people working on Easter Sunday now get an increased penalty rate.
That policy is also not up for negotiation in Shadow Cabinet. Even if it was, surely the driest of the dries wouldn’t be arguing the merits of clawing back that one with an election two months away and Trades Hall spoiling for a fight.
Matt Johnston is state politics editor
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