August 21, 2013
The South Burnett Regional Council has called for a public debate on moving the region’s annual Ekka Show Holiday from a Monday to a Wednesday.
The call came at today’s monthly council meeting when councillors approved Monday, August 11, as the 2014 show holiday date.
South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said that with the introduction of a new long weekend in October, he thought the time had come for a “reassessment” of the annual show holiday.
“I think having a long weekend for the Ekka gives our region a bit of an economic downturn,” he said.
“On the one hand, it encourages a lot of residents to take a long weekend away.
“And on the other, it gives a lot of our local businesses trouble because we have a public holiday here on the Monday and then most parts of the south-east have their Ekka public holiday on the Wednesday.
“So if they do business with the south-east, they have to battle with two days every Ekka week when their phone calls and emails aren’t getting answered rather than just one.
“But if we moved our show holiday from Monday to Wednesday we’d fall in line with many of our neighbours, make life a little bit easier for local businesses and give the region a bit of a boost, too.”
He went on to say that with the rise of the nine-day fortnight and RDOs in modern workplaces, many workers had plenty of opportunities for long weekends anyway.
Cr Barry Green said he fully agreed with the idea.
He reminded fellow councillors that in pre-amalgamation times, Nanango Shire Council had originally been the only South Burnett council that celebrated its Ekka holiday on a Monday.
This was later taken up by Wondai and Murgon Shire councils, and finally by Kingaroy Shire Council.
The South Burnett Regional Council had simply continued the tradition of a Monday show holiday without giving the matter any real consideration.
“The only reason Nanango chose a Monday was that it made the Ekka holiday the last long weekend before Christmas, so it was an important break for a lot of people,” Cr Green said.
“But now that we have a long weekend in October, it might be better for business and the local economy to move to a mid-week date.”
Cr Damien Tessmann said that in his experience, anyone who worked on the land largely ignored public holidays because “every day was a work day”.
So he didn’t think moving the holiday would pose a problem for anyone involved in rural industries.
“However I’d question the choice of Wednesday. That’s “People’s Day” at the Ekka and everyone in the south-east who has a Wednesday show holiday goes there,” he said.
“Adding the South Burnett into the same queue would just mean that locals who wanted to go to the Ekka on the holiday would be going at the busiest time and facing the longest queues.
“I’d be in favour of moving the show holiday, but I’d prefer if it was any day but Wednesday.”
Cr Kathy Duff said she agreed with Cr Tessmann, but thought that putting the matter out for public debate would be the best way to go.
“If we moved the date without consulting anyone, a lot of people would look on this as something being taken away from them,” she said.
“We’ve already set the date for next year and it’s going to be a long weekend as usual. So we should use the next 12 months to encourage public debate about this.”
Cr Deb Palmer said her view was that if people wanted to attend the Ekka, it didn’t matter to them when the Show holiday was held – they’d go anyway.
But she agreed with Cr Duff that the question was one that South Burnett residents should debate before Council made any decision.
