australian public holidays

[tielan]

So there's been motions to stop Australia Day being a public holiday or, really, any kind of celebration.

I am all behind it. Partly for the same reasons as Columbus Day in the US, partly because we have clusters of public holidays in our calendar: 2 days at Christmas, 1 day at New Year, Australia Day in late January, just before school goes back. Then we have the Easter Long Weekend, which usually comes very close to ANZAC Day on the 25th April (kind of like the US Memorial Day, I guess), and then the Queen's B'Day holiday in June.

And then nothing - NOTHING - through the long, chilly, short-dayed winter, until the October long weekend.

Basically, we have too many public holidays in January, and I think we need one to break up the monotony of winter and I don't see why Australia Day can't be sacrificed (apart from white people tears).

There's an actual movement (petition, what have you) to get it switched to May 8 ("Maaaaay-eight! MAAAAAATE!") but eh, we don't actually need another holiday in the Easter-ANZAC-Queen's b'day stretch.

We need one in midwinter. Preferably right around the start of August so it's nicely balanced between the Queen's b'day weekend, and the October Long Weekend.

This post was brought to you by the realisation that it will be four months before we have another public holiday. FOUR MONTHS.

UGH.

Comments

[jenab]

A number of years ago my province brought in a Family Day in February to break-up the long winter months and it does help. A good portion of getting it was the public pushing for it and the politicians listening.

Hopefully something like that will happen with your movement.

[tielan]

Well, Australia Day is a federal holiday, so we'll need a lot of work on that. Plus issues with pushback from the "Keep Australia Culturally White" folks, many of whom are rural and in swing electorates...

[deird1]

You have an October one! Awesome! We have to wait until November (Cup Day). Or did, until the Premier won an election by promising a holiday on Grand Final Friday.

Victoria. Home of the sports-related days off.

[tielan]

Yes, but you get Cup Day!

I imagine that they have to take Grand Final Friday from some other holiday - where was he proposing to steal the public holiday from?

[deird1]

I actually have no idea. I was out of the country the year that it happened, so I missed all the discussion. As far as I remember we haven't lost one...

[tielan]

There's a part of me which wonders if Grand Final Friday shouldn't really be Recovery Monday - to cut down on all the sickies being taken the Monday after a Grand Final Weekend?

[deird1]

That's what Sunday is for. :)

The Friday has a Grand Final parade through the CBD. It's pretty festive.

[copracat]

We did not lose one. We got an entire additional public holiday for the sportsball grand final parade.

The only people who seemed cross about it were CBD clubs and bars who lost an entire Friday night of people getting stonkered post-work.