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I feel very uneasy about banning people from shopping on Anzac Day. In fact, I feel downright annoyed at the sanctimonious decision of New South Wales Premier Chris Minns.
It's quite hard to define why. Obviously, I have enormous respect for people - often people in their teens or 20s - who are ready to and sometimes do give their lives to defend our values. They are prepared to die so that we can enjoy the fabulous way of life which is our Australian way.
But it's the idea of enforced commemoration that sticks in my gullet. Patriotism is a choice. We feel it in different ways, and a regimented sentiment dictated from above goes against the democratic grain.
Mr Minns is trying to impose an emotion on us, and that smacks of authoritarianism - or, more likely, cheap political humbuggery.
If people want to wander round a shop on a day off after going to the Dawn Service, that doesn't seem so bad. After all, we don't have to make a choice between remembering those who sacrificed themselves and walking through a shopping mall. Most of us can do both at the same time.
"For Australians, no occasion could be more solemn or significant than Anzac Day," the premier of New South Wales said.
This, of course, is not true. For Christians or Muslims or Hindus or Jews, other days are also significant.
Significance is not quantifiable. There's no scale of one to 10. The celebration of the birth of Christ is significant for a Christian and so might Anzac Day be. Diwali, or the start and end of Ramadan, or Yom Kippur are significant for others who also revere those who died to protect our right to freedom of religion and thought.
![Retail businesses in NSW will be closed on Anzac Day starting in 2025. Picture Shutterstock Retail businesses in NSW will be closed on Anzac Day starting in 2025. Picture Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/231012065/82ae8355-f206-4203-956a-9190398d6f96.jpg/r0_18_4000_2276_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Minns wants to spare New South Welshmen from the evils of shopping on the sacred day, to free us up for what?
To enjoy an afternoon of two-up, of course, a gambling game often accompanied by shed-loads of alcohol. Late at night on Anzac Day, I have watched grown men fighting bare-chested in the street - literally howling drunk. Good for Mr Minns for approving of it while disapproving of heinous shopping.
"It might be inconvenient for a few hours, but closing our biggest corporate shops for a single day is a small price to pay for living in a free and open democracy," Mr Minns said.
But wrong again. The people who paid the price for living in a free and open democracy are those who died in its defence, and not the members of the public who stand in tribute on the day.
There is a danger in the glorification of war, particularly by those who enjoy some sort of virtuous but costless pleasure in disapproving of the way others choose to remember the dead.
Mr Minns has made a cheap political gesture. Pass the sick bag.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Stores will no longer be open for trading on Anzac Day in NSW from 2025. Anzac Day retail trading restrictions, that once extended until 1pm, will continue throughout the whole day, NSW premier Chris Minns has announced.
- Within 48 hours of being granted bail, a private school boy accused of killing a man in a crash violated several conditions and went on the run. The 17-year-old is accused of being behind the wheel of a speeding, stolen Jeep when it killed Ashburton man William Taylor, 28, on July 2 in the collision in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Burwood.
- A man accused of murdering a woman before her body was found at a tip in Melbourne's north has faced court. Stephen Fleming, 45, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
- The man accused of trying to kill two Australian National University students with a knife and assaulting two more has been committed to stand trial.
THEY SAID IT: "Today we stand safe and free, clothed with all the privileges and rights of citizens in these great free countries. And all these things - liberty, security, opportunity, the privileges of citizenship - we owe to those men who fought, endured, suffered, and died for us and for their country." - Anzac Day Commemoration Committee of Queensland.
YOU SAID IT: I wondered what you thought about the idea of remarrying my first wife.
"Greetings and congratulations on your remarriage, good fortune to you both. Separation makes the heart grow fonder," Paul replied.
Sue had strong views: "Not for me. I realised too late that the loving, attentive person I married was an illusion created by someone looking for a housekeeper who would also bring in an income. Being run off my feet working, doing all the cooking and housework and bringing up the kids, none of which he saw as his responsibility, it took me longer than it should have before I showed him the door. There is no way I am taking on that again!"
"No regrets over my divorce or any desire to get reacquainted. As Gilbert & Sullivan said: 'There's lots of good fish in the sea!' I caught a terrific one," Alan said.