Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will propose a national public holiday if the Matildas win the World Cup at Cabinet this week.
Mr Albanese has supported the idea of the day off for weeks now, saying he will hype up the possibility to state leaders – who ultimately decide if their state will celebrate with a public holiday.
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National Cabinet meets on Wednesday where the prime minister will most likely push for the public holiday.
The proposal has received support for both its yes and no case, with NSW Premier Chris Minns one of the leaders to publicly voice he’s in favour of the idea.
“We’d love to back the Matildas with a public holiday,” he said in a statement read on 4GB.
“We’ll work with the other states and the Commonwealth to get the right date. It’s going to be raised at national cabinet next week.”
Meanwhile, after the Matildas nail-biting win against France on Saturday night to progress them to the semi-finals, the National party leader, David Littleproud, said he was against the public holiday.
Mr Littleproud said while he was “proud of the Matildas”, it was easy to declare a public holiday when “someone else is paying for it”.
“Look, I don’t want to be Captain Killjoy on this but … I think business has a point here,” Mr Littleproud told the ABC’s Insiders program.
“I think we’ve just got to understand that someone’s got to foot that bill and businesses out there are doing it tough. We live in a great nation – we can celebrate our win – but we have to get on and pay the bills and make sure that the country keeps going.”
Small businesses have also echoed the opinion of Mr Littleproud saying a public holiday would increase business running costs and lower productivity.
The Matildas will face England in the semi-final clash on Wednesday at 8pm at Stadium Australia in Sydney.