Toni,

"I kind of get the impression that you're just against public holidays in general. Although I can't imagine why. Some people are just miserable buggers, I guess."

I'm not against public holidays, just religious based ones; there is no justification in a secular society to have religious holidays.

Is Mise can not but agree in this, if we every one of us, care to look we will see a faith, one of the three, born in just a small area of the middle east, is the reason some want an end to migration.
Those faiths are, [strange but true] from this small area and? closely related to each other, the children of Abraham are today's Muslims, Christian and Jews are the other two.
Refusing to believe God visited only that small area of what we are told is his creation, re-enforces my view faith, not race, is holding humanity back,
If the concerns Islam is taking our country over why are those people who are concerned about it watching Chinese migrates who are in much bigger numbers and buying our country?

Dear Belly,

Our part of Melbourne has been allowed to develop
high-rise apartment buildings that are really
horrible - tiny, boxes, one on top of the other.
Inside there's barely room to swing a cat.
It's Chinese money - and most of them end up being
put up "for lease." It spoils the entire neighbourhood's
appearance. Yet the Council allows it - these blocks
are income earners (rates) for the Council. Building
standards have been dropped to accommodate these
foreign investments. And their money does not stay in
our country.

Foxy money controls not the best interests of people, it is interesting Melbourne once seemed, despite the rivalry with my city Sydney, to be more livable than a badly neglected Sydney,we too have seen that massive money buy a whole suburb and it will, while slowing down continue.
In the end my view remains we will live well together as the past migrations prove.
It would be interesting to know the back ground of posters ,just how many generations of us have been here and what country's we came from

Foxy,

Melbourne's "Vertical Slums" started back in the 1960s, I remember visiting migrant friends who were living in one and I was appalled at the smallness of the rooms and the general low quality, and it wasn't Chinese money back then.

//there is no justification in a secular society to have religious holidays.//

Of course there is. People really, really like Christmas. Even the non-Christian ones.

Also, banning Christmas? You know who else did that? Bloody Cromwell. Oh, and Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia. But she's fictional. Look, I realize that playing the Cromwell card is basically the same thing as playing the Nazi card... but I feel it's justified. Banning Christmas is a dick move, which is why it's always wrong'uns like Cromwell and the White Witch that want to do it.

Thirdly, do you have any idea how much economic havoc would be wreaked on the retail sector? I mean, just for that reason alone it's a spectacularly bad idea.

And finally, why the hell shouldn't a secular society be allowed to 'culturally appropriate' Christmas off the Christians? They culturally appropriated it off cultures that came before them... Christmas isn't so much a religious celebration as an astronomical one observing the December solstice. And astronomy is secular. QED, now pass the turkey.