Tamworth sub-branch RSL president David Howells said it was "disgraceful" the South Australian government has scrubbed Anzac Day from next year's holiday list.
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"How can they legislate that day as a public holiday but not what it's about," Mr Howells said of the April 25 day of national significance.
"It's a disgrace, and I think veterans all over Australia will be quite disappointed with the South Australian government's attitude towards just deleting what a public holiday is about."
The Public Holidays Act is expected to come into force in South Australia from February 1, 2024, and has listed all 12 days off, from January 1 to December 26, but has only mentioned Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.
"I don't know what the government in South Australia was thinking when they did this," Mr Howells said.
"But it wasn't just the Anzac Day, [it removed] Christmas Day, Australia Day and the King's birthday, but kept Easter in there.
"It's bamboozling where they got this idea from and why they want to push that agenda."
It's a day that we commemorate those who went before us and sacrificed themselves for the democracy of our country,
- David Howells, Tamworth RSL president
Mr Howells said Anzac Day "is not just a public holiday".
"It's a day we commemorate those who went before us and sacrificed themselves for the democracy of our country," he said.
Mr Howells said April 25 was a day of national significance that has also come to represent "every other time we've been in conflict".
On April 25, 1915, about 16,000 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) soldiers landed at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. By nightfall 2000 had lost their lives or suffered severe injuries.
A total of about 62,000 Australians from a then-national population of 5 million lost their lives during World War One.
Mr Howells said it was "so very disappointing to hear what the South Australian government's done. But let's hope the other state governments don't follow the same line".
Mr Howells was voted-in as the president of the Tamworth RSL sub-branch earlier this year to serve a three-year term, and the group represents an area that has about 1544 veterans.
Across the 12 northern region LGAs, which includes Tamworth, Armidale, Inverell, Gunnedah and Liverpool Plains, there are nearly 10,000 veterans, 169 currently serving in the Australian Defence Force ADF, 435 war widows, and 736 dependants.
Mr Howells served as a medic between 1980 and 1986 in the Australian Defence Force and was deployed to Rifle Company Butterworth in Malaysia before being evacuated back home after he was involved in an accident.
New England MP Barnaby Joyce's two grandfathers served in World War I, his late father James Joyce served in World War II and MP Joyce was also in the Royal Queensland Regiment reserves from 1996 to 2001.
Mr Joyce said Anzac Day was "not a day to be trifled with".
"It's a day to remember those who have sacrificed for our nation in so many ways, with their life, with being maimed, with their families being broken up and destroyed, with their careers turned upside down," Mr Joyce said.
"You can't say 'lest we forget' if you're removing all the mechanisms for how we remember."
Mr Joyce said if we don't "stand up" and deal with one state attempting to remove the significance of Anzac to April 25, then it could spread to NSW and other parts of Australia.
"These things tend to start in one spot and go elsewhere. We say 'that'll never happen here', but if you don't stand up, it does. And we've got to deal with it in the first iteration."
