By Casey Neill
The Grand Final Friday public holiday will hurt the competitiveness of south-east manufacturers, a peak body says.
Friday 30 September will be the second time the annual holiday takes place.
South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) executive officer Adrian Boden said that given recent State Government decisions “this can only have a greater impact to the manufacturer in the south-east”.
“Maximising productivity is essential to all of these businesses and it’s essential to maintaining the manufacturing base in Victoria,” he said.
“Therefore, the effects of this public holiday, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to others, has a profound impact on many of these businesses and impedes on their ability to be competitive.”
South Eastern Metropolitan Region Liberal MP Inga Peulich has a petition calling on the State Government to reverse the public holiday.
She said the holiday imposed a major new cost that would cause many businesses to close their doors for the day and cost employees shifts.
Ms Peulich said that the State Government last year found that the holiday would cost Victoria as much as $898 million per year.
“I ask the people of Greater Dandenong to join me in again asking Daniel Andrews to listen to our small business owners and their employees and to reverse this job-destroying decision,” she said.
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams said feedback from the electorate had been overwhelmingly positive, with people using Grand Final Friday to spend time with friends and family and visit local business.
“Businesses have been trading with public holiday and weekend arrangements in place for decades and whether businesses open or close is entirely a matter for them,” she said.
The petition is available at ingapeulich.org.
