Page 5071 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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be adopted as the Family and Community Day holiday. The business community’s view at that time, as expressed through their peak bodies, was that they were opposed to an additional holiday, but if they were recognising that it was the government’s intent to have an additional holiday then we should choose the day of lowest productivity. Their view was that that would be Melbourne Cup Day.
That was the outcome of the consultation. I find it curious and somewhat amusing that, in accepting the outcomes of that consultation, we are apparently guilty of lacking foresight and, in fact, we should have ignored that consultation process. Next time Mrs Dunne lectures me or any of my colleagues on consultation I will have those words echoing in my ears. According to Mrs Dunne, there are times when we are to consult and get a clear outcome, but then we are to completely ignore it because there is some other foresight that should be shown. I will note that one. I will store that one away for future debates, Mr Speaker.
Having reached a decision in relation to Family and Community Day, I think it is important to note its general acceptance. The principles behind the day have been generally accepted by the ACT community and are very strongly endorsed. In fact, you see that in the participation in Family and Community Day activities that have been run jointly by the government and a range of community organisations at various venues around the city on the day. Whilst I acknowledge that for those who had enjoyed the tradition of effectively knocking off at lunchtime, having lunches and sweeps and all of the rest and not doing much else in the afternoon, just hanging around with their work colleagues, there was an end to that tradition on Melbourne Cup Day, but certainly new traditions were established. Canberra racecourse, for example, was very pleased with the increased attendance as a result.
Nonetheless, two or three years of experience showed that having the holiday on a Tuesday meant that a larger than usual number of people took off the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day. It is worth noting that, even prior to the Tuesday being a public holiday, it was a day that those who were interested in racing certainly took off; they went down to Victoria for the Spring Racing Carnival. It is not to say it was never the case before, but it was certainly exacerbated by having the holiday on the Tuesday. It is appropriate, in terms of continuing the Family and Community Day tradition and also looking at the impacts, to have today’s legislation to move that date.
Before I close I must make some further observations on the situation in other states and territories in Australia around public holidays. I think Mrs Dunne in her contribution skated over the fact that other jurisdictions, particularly smaller jurisdictions, have more public holidays than, say, New South Wales. There are regional show days and regional race days in Tasmania and the Northern Territory which means, in fact, that the number of public holidays is equal to that of the ACT. Whether it is the race day in Hobart or the Launceston show in Tasmania, the northern half of the state has a public holiday on a different day than the southern part of the state does. Nonetheless, everyone in Tasmania enjoys 12 public holidays, just as we will in the ACT with the passage of this legislation.
I am very pleased to be able to support this legislation and to commend the Minister for Industrial Relations for bringing it forward. I apologise to ACT teachers, who I
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