John Hargreaves is admitting that having a public holiday on the day of the Melbourne Cup was a horrible and stupid idea.
But loathe as he is to get rid of a public holiday we’re going to have a silly “Family & Community Day public holiday” on the first monday in September. Except when it clashes with Labor Day and then it’ll be the second monday. Because we can’t even get a public holiday right in this town.
- For the next four years the Family and Community Day public holiday will fall on the following dates:
2009 – Tuesday, 3 November 2009
2010 – Monday, 27 September 2010
2011 – Monday, 10 October 2011
2012 – Monday, 8 October 2012
Call me silly, but none of those dates looks like the first or second Mondays in September.
Good news for public servants and the hospitality industry , and public servants who also work in the hospitality industry.
After checking the Chief Minister website, I noticed that it’s first or second Mondays in the school holidays.
That seems a much better idea (than Melbourne Cup day), in my opinion.
That was all a bit confusing jb. I got a bit confuddled with the first Monday in Septemmber clashing with the Labor Day holiday, which is usually the first weekend in October. But reading the press release the Family Day ties in with the first weekend of the school holidays. Clear as mud now.
But, having the dual Labor Day, Family Day holiday seems a bit daft to me. Seeing as this day is clearly a random afterthought, can’t we have a day off somewhere in between ANZAC Day and Labor Day, or a shopping day in December, haha.
Good to see that the ACT Gubbmint has finally realised that Melbourne Cup day is the day for getting drunk in the office and gambling with your workmates.
Why not have the new randomly created day off work while floriade is on? Then it is situated nicely in the long stretch between the Queens B’day and the labor Day holiday in Oct.
Absolutely stupid scheduling – two long weekends in a row is just ridiculous.
This is good news; one less day of school holiday leave/care etc… that working parents have to worry about. I missed Melbourne Cup day at work too. All good.
Seems a little unPC to have a family and community day: what about all the people who don’t like their family, and have been ostracised from the community?
I propose another public holiday: Hermits Day, which will be celebrated with the banning of going out in public or speaking to other people, and held in the middle of Winter when no one wants to go outside anyway.
benoncehobbled said :
+1
I think we need this additional holiday in the public-holiday-drought season of July-August-September.
Why didn’t they just get rid of this unwanted holiday altogether? After all, it was brought in solely to counter Workchoices which abolished the union picnic day. Now that the picnic day has been restored (presumably) there is no need for another holiday.
trevar said :
How very Canberra.
Steady Eddie said :
There is no such thing as an unwanted public holiday in my book!
I think it sounds great! A public holiday in the school holidays would work really well for a family and community day. The kids would love it, and it could be a lot of fun. I’m all for it!
Steady Eddie said :
There is every need. It’s a punishment and ongoing reminder for the business community of the potential adverse results of supporting attacks on worker’s rights such as Howard’s Workchoices.
Joshua said :
Like some sort of collective punishment? (I think it’s sad you feel this way btw)
Why not make it a whole week and send the economy to ruins.. that’ll teach ‘em…