Barnaby needs to remember public servants are Australians too

Barnaby Joyce says public servants should be made to take the day off on Anzac Day and not swap it for another day’s leave.

Of course, most have and most will continue to observe Anzac Day as a public holiday. But the shadow veterans’ affairs minister and one-time deputy prime minister of Australia says the 350,000-strong Commonwealth public sector workforce should actually ignore the provision made by Labor that allows them to swap the day.

And he goes further.

He’s called on the Federal Government (again) to reverse its decision and insist that Australian Public Service employees stay away from work every Anzac Day.

“In the past there have been many Commonwealth public servants required to work on Anzac Day such as our federal police, border security, military and staff at the Australian War Memorial,” he said.

“However, these employees have always been required to work.

“In January the Labor Government reversed that, so now any public servant has the right to request that they just swap the Anzac Day holiday for another day and for any reason at all.

“That devalues what a day of remembrance is all about. Maybe it was a mistake, but mistakes should be corrected.

“Anzac Day is a day off so we can attend memorial services first, not a day off somewhere else to go elsewhere.”

Yes, Mr Joyce describes it as a mistake to allow Commonwealth public servants to swap the day for an alternative.

It must be a mistake then, that Barnaby believes he and the former Coalition government had already undone.

As the nation grew close to a federal election last year, the Morrison government (cynically some might say, considering it was heading for an electoral wipeout), overruled a long-standing practice that public servants could swap any public holiday with the approval of their managers.

Such flexibility had been in place the entire tenure of the Morrison government and for years before that.

But in a truly desperate fashion, the Coalition suddenly rushed to change the rules to demand that Australia Day, the Queen’s Birthday and Anzac Day must be observed by Commonwealth public servants.

That was what seemed to be the most important order of business for a tired government on the nose.

It was one final opportunity for Mr Morrison to exercise authority over his workforce and let those out-of-control public servants know who the boss was.

The last opportunity, that is, before he used the election campaign to let public servants know what he really thought of them (that worked out well for him).

So it was pretty much a simple matter of course for the Albanese government to reverse Morrison’s public holiday orders and go back to the way things were.

But Barnaby is not one to ever say die, so he’s on the bandwagon again rooting for a lost cause.

“In my heart I know most Commonwealth employees will ignore the government’s new directive,” he said in a statement issued directly before this year’s Anzac Day holiday.

“But my plea to anyone considering taking up the government’s policy is that they instead stop and remember those who have served and those who have fallen.”

Patronising much?

Australians have always had the choice to decide if they want to acknowledge Anzac Day, Australia Day or the now King’s Birthday public holidays by attending ceremonies or by lounging on the beach – or both.

We can each observe such days however we wish and in accordance with how we feel about them.

If that means we’d rather work, no government should be ordering otherwise.

It’s our egalitarian way.

And public servants are Australians too.