It is unconscionable to talk about the cost of a public holiday without also talking about the benefit. But there's something else that needs discussing too: declaring a public holiday is a job for states and territories. The PM doesn't get a look in, writes Peter Martin.
Should the Matildas win the World Cup, any decision to grant an extra public holiday is one for the states and territories. The Fair Work Act specifies only eight national public holidays. Any others have to be "declared or prescribed by or under a law of a state or territory".
It is unconscionable to talk about the cost of a public holiday without also talking about the benefit — what the Productivity Commission describes as the "genuine social benefit associated with widespread community engagement in events, especially on days of cultural or spiritual significance". It's what Prime Minister Bob Hawke was getting at the morning Australia won the America's Cup in 1983. He famously declared "any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum!". But far fewer people remember what Hawke then added: "You have to work a bit harder the next day to make up."Far more of us are able to work a bit harder to make up than when Hawke made the suggestion.
Late last year, two economists from Harvard University and the University of Chile, Rodrigo Wagner and Lucas Rosso, presented a solution.
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