The push for two extra annual public holidays in Australia has intensified to align the country with its growing reputation as a multicultural society.
Today’s public holidays represent Western Christian traditions despite only a quarter of Australians attending church just once a year, according to the non-partisan international policy think tank Lowy Institute.
Although popular belief would suggest that Australia is abundant with long weekends, several countries in the Indo-Pacific, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, have more public holidays.
In these countries, public holidays mark celebrations such as Buddha’s birthday, Diwali, Lunar New Year, Eid and Christmas Day, allowing various communities to honor their traditions.
However, Christmas Island in Australia has a public holiday for the Lunar New Year, and
and in both Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, one is held for Eid.
The institute argues that adding more public holidays to Australia’s annual calendar would reframe the country’s reputation as a “Western outpost on the edge of the Indo-Pacific” and serve as a strong message to the rest of the world.
“In an era of growing concerns about illiberalism and intolerance around the world, it would be a powerful symbolic statement from a Western liberal democracy,” the institute said.
The ongoing debate over whether to cancel or change the date of Australia Day serves as a sign that Australians feel strongly about what the holiday says about their country’s identity.
“Rather than encouraging division, more public holidays would create a greater sense of unity by encouraging greater social understanding of different beliefs and practices, normalizing cultural pluralism in Australia,” the institute said.
Community support for more holidays is, unsurprisingly, abundant.
The Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion 2022 report found that seven in 10 people supported learning more about the history and complexities of different ethnic and cultural groups in the country.
More public holidays would play a key role in fostering inclusion by creating a greater sense of unity, the institute reported.
“They would foster greater social understanding of different beliefs and practices, normalizing cultural pluralism in Australia,” he wrote.
Data from the 2021 census revealed that Australia’s population is made up mainly of migrants or the children of migrants, with about one in five people speaking a language other than English at home.
Meanwhile, a quarter of Australians have a non-European cultural background overseas.