A Good Friday Appeal

I've been living in the Philippines for nearly all of my life, and have been used to the fact that the most part of the Holy Week (Christian remembrance of Jesus Christ's Passion, Death and Ressurection) is always a public holiday in the Philippines. Well, it is a holiday in most predominantly Christian countries.
Now that I moved here in Melbourne - Australia, I've realized that there also a couple of Public Holidays declared for the Holy Week. Here, Good Friday and Easter Monday (the Monday after Easter Sunday) are both Public Holidays. It is quite good for me since I am a Roman Catholic, and it gives me time to reflect.
But then I read this article on Mx the other day about a minister wanting to scrap out the Good Friday from the list of Public Holidays here. At first I was a bit upset with his remarks about Good Friday losing it's meaning, but then I've realized that he had some points.
To think of it, not everyone in this country are Christian, so they would just threat Good Friday as another ordinary public holiday for picknicks, outings, and a day on the barbie. And it is only us Christians, who take a time to use the holydays as our time to reflect on our Faith. The minister on the article's point was more of a political, rather than a cultural tone.
Then again, I thought that Christmas was also a Christian holiday, but then even in the US it is a Public Holiday. So his point has both good and bad points.