A Nation’s Day Is Not a Floating Leave Credit
The paid rejection of a nation’s shared moment
A public holiday is not just a paid day off, it is a collective signal. It says this matters enough that we pause together. When a country declares a day to mark an event, it is asking its citizens, however loosely, to acknowledge that moment in the national story.
Yet an increasing number of large companies now allow employees to take an alternative paid day off instead of observing Australia Day itself. Allowing people to quietly opt out, take another day instead and still be paid empties the occasion of that shared meaning.
Australia Day is a good example because it has become emotionally and politically charged. People can disagree about what it represents or how it should be marked, but the day itself exists for a reason. If someone fundamentally rejects that reason, it is reasonable to ask why they should receive the benefit attached to it. You wouldn’t expect to skip ANZAC Day commemorations because you “don’t connect with it” and then nominate a different paid day that suits you better. The point is the commemoration, not the entitlement.
What some companies call “flexibility” is often really moral outsourcing. Rather than making a clear decision, they hand responsibility to the individual while keeping the virtue points. The result is incoherent. The business still publicly recognises Australia Day as a public holiday, still benefits from the national framework that created it but privately treats the day itself as optional symbolism. That is not inclusivity, it is avoidance.
There is also a quiet unfairness in paying people for something they explicitly refuse to acknowledge while others participate in good faith. It creates a one-way tolerance where opting out of Australia Day is rewarded but opting in is treated as morally suspect or old-fashioned. Over time, that corrodes social cohesion. Shared rituals only work if they are actually shared.
Social cohesion has been at the forefront of public discussion lately, spoken about as something fragile and in need of repair. Yet here we have large companies actively undermining it. Instead of encouraging a sense of shared belonging or pride in the country that sustains them, they normalise disengagement and call it progress. It is time these corporates stopped drifting with cultural fashion and started pulling with the country, rather than contributing to the erosion of social cohesion. You cannot build cohesion while quietly teaching people that national identity is optional and collective moments are disposable.
None of this means people should be forced to feel pride, joy or agreement. A free country allows dissent but dissent normally comes with a cost, not a perk. If we turn Australia Day into a floating personal leave entitlement, we shouldn’t be surprised when the idea of a nation feels thin and transactional.
At some point, a society has to decide whether its public holidays are about common identity or just another line item in an enterprise agreement.