March 17, 2015
The June Queen’s Birthday long weekend will be axed next year, the State Government announced today.
Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt said the State Government would honour an election commitment by returning Labour Day to the first Monday in May, starting from 2016.
The Queen’s Birthday will now be celebrated on the first Monday of October.
“We will be reversing the LNP’s decision to shift Labour Day to October and from next year we will return it to its rightful, historical place in the calendar in May,” Mr Pitt said.
“I have discussed this change with business and industry, unions, and others and the government has taken their views on board in coming to its decision.
“This decision honours our election commitment while also delivering certainty and stability for everyone.
“This gives a better spread of public holidays across the calendar and fulfils our pledge to honour the rightful date for Labour Day in Queensland.”
The LNP Government originally moved Labour Day from May to October in 2013.
It said at the time it was doing this to bring Queensland into line with other AustralianS tates, and also to provide a more balanced spread of public holidays through the year.
Before this, Labour Day had been celebrated in Queensland every May since 1891.
Mr Pitt said Labour Day in Queensland was a chance for Queenslanders to honour those who struggled to secure fair wages and working conditions including workplace health and safety provisions, an eight-hour working day and the principle of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work for both men and women.
Quite right. Well, maybe not QUITE right. Why not axe the Queen’s Birthday holiday altogether? It is a hangover from way back and cannot now be justified (and I am truly a Royalist). We have too many public holidays. It was a piece of political bastardry to change the Labour Day holiday (and yes, I am a conservative voter….mostly). I am against change for the sake of change; but this is one change I can agree with.
I agree with the political bastardry point, Kev, and I don’t really care about what we celebrate in October. But I don’t agree with axing the June long weekend to restore a long weekend in May. Under the LNP arrangement, we had a public holiday about once every two monrths or so. But under this new arrangement we’ll go back to a clump of them early in the year, then nothing at all between May and the August Ekka holiday. Puh! I blame the voters…
The Left likes May Day and the Right loves the Queen so our long weekends swing like a pendulum from election to election. Swing to the left, it’s May. Swing to the Right, it’s June. This idiotic PC is disrupting people’s lives and tourism. How about planning a mid-year holiday that we can all celebrate that has nothing to do with either royalty or workers solidarity? How about Queensland Day (June 6)?