Row over 'cancelled' Christmas deepens as ministers add to school 'pile on'

In short:

The row over a Tasmanian school's alleged "cancelling" of Christmas has deepened, with government ministers doubling down with AI-generated images and other posts on social media.

The furore started after Tasmania's premier said on social media he had instructed an unnamed school to reinstate Christmas events.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said: "We expect our schools to acknowledge and celebrate Christmas."

The row over a Tasmanian primary school's alleged "cancelling" of Christmas has deepened, with government ministers doubling down with AI-generated images and other posts on social media.

On Wednesday, Premier Jeremy Rockliff posted on social media that it had been brought to his attention "that there had been efforts made to remove all references to Christmas in end-of-year school celebrations".

He went on to say that he had requested the Education Department to "step in".

While Mr Rockliff did not name the school and the comments were moderated, it did not take long for members of the public to work out which school it related to.

That post referred to a northern Tasmanian school that was planning to change the name of its end-of-year event, from Christmas on the Hill to End of Year Extravaganza.

Other events on the school's festive calendar reference Christmas.

The school's acting principal is now on stress leave.

Premier expects schools to acknowledge Christmas

The Australian Education Union (AEU) claims members were upset about the post and wanted the premier to apologise.

Mr Rockliff has been pushed multiple times at press conferences about whether he will apologise for the post, but he said he stood by his words.

In a statement, he said he "reiterated to the department that we expect our schools to acknowledge and celebrate Christmas".

"I stand by that expectation,"he said.

On Monday evening, Treasurer Eric Abetz, Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson and Police Minister Felix Ellis all posted about the importance of celebrating Christmas, appearing to refer to the school situation.

Alongside an AI-generated image of a mother comforting her son about his cancelled nativity play, Mr Abetz's post asked: "Is this what we want for our kids?"

"Christmas is celebrated by the overwhelming majority of Tasmanians, and I believe our schools should be places where those traditions are celebrated too," Mr Abetz's post read.

Meanwhile, Mr Ellis posted a picture from the children's movie The Grinch, alongside the caption: "And if you try and stop us changing Christmas, we're going … call you a culture warrior that's just doing it for clicks."

Mr Barnett went for a straighter approach, posting that "we strongly support our schools celebrating Christmas".

"Well done to the premier for making it clear."

The AEU, which has also continued to publicise the issue, accused the ministers of joining in the pile-on.

Union secretary David Genford said if a person's "ultimate line manager" had an issue, they should treat the person with respect and contact them directly.

"You don't want them to go to social media and say this is wrong and not even look into what was happening," he said.

"What we have seen is at least five Liberal government members posting stuff on their social media about this issue.

"Some ridiculous memes and AI slop that's been posted by these people who are meant to show respect to our community."

Minister 'not a fan of culture wars'

Mr Genford said people need to be careful about what they say and do in the public eye.

Asked if the posts were inflaming the situation, government minister Nick Duigan said: "We all like Christmas and that's OK."

Mr Duigan was also asked if culture wars were contributing to the breakdown of political debate and increasing tensions.

"I don't enjoy a culture war. I'm not a fan of culture wars. I don't think they add much," he said.

"I am a fan of Christmas. I think we should celebrate Christmas. I don't think we should be apologetic about that.

"But again, I think we can have our differences of opinion, but we have to have them in a respectful way."

Mr Duigan said told reporters he would leave Mr Abetz "to run his own social media empire".