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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 3652 ..
MR SMYTH (continuing):
holiday. He bases it on the fact that Sydney is giving it. We are totally different to Sydney. There is no point to the additional half-day holiday. The Assembly should vote against it.
MS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (6.19): The comments that Mr Smyth makes are very relevant. This will be a huge impost on small business, people who really cannot afford it. I think it is encapsulated in one letter among many we got. I will table a number in a minute. This is a letter from a very small business in Canberra, called the Balloon Shop. It says:
I was amazed to here that New Years Eve is still been considered as a part Public Holiday.
How stupid! We are fully booked out for New Years with the understanding that staff be paid at normal rates. We haven't raised prices as others have, and now it looks that we will be working for nothing.
If the decision was made last year, we could have adjusted our prices to accommodate the overtime.
Mr Berry then goes on to say if we have a Public Holiday here than more Canberra people can travel to Sydney to celebrate the New Millennium. I thought it would be better for our economy if people were to say here. I Wonder what other things Wayne suggests to support Sydney.
Mary Lindbeck goes on. She says:
Let's try and use some commonsense, don't make New Years Eve a public Holiday.
Mr Speaker, for the interest of members, I table responses from the chief executive, Restaurant & Catering New South Wales; the chief administration officer, Coles Myer Ltd; the president, Canberra Small Business Council, to Mr Berry; the president, Canberra Small Business Council, to me; and the general manager, Australian Hotels Association (ACT Region). I ask that they be incorporated in Hansard. They make it clearer than any of us could that this will cost jobs and cost small business money.
Leave granted.
The letters read as follows:
Kate Carnell MLA Chief Minister
Australian Capital Territory
GPO Box 158
CANBERRA ACT 2601
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