Labour Day public holiday to move to October

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Jarrod Bleijie has today introduced the Holidays and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 to move the Labour Day public holiday to the first Monday in October.

Mr Bleijie said the amendments will reverse the previous government’s decision to move the Queen’s Birthday public holiday from the second Monday in June to the first Monday in October and instead move Labour Day from May to this date.

“We made the decision to keep the Queen’s Birthday public holiday consistent with all other states and territories with the exception of Western Australia,” he said.

“By moving the Labour Day public holiday to October it will break up the concentration of public holidays that generally fall in the April-May period and provide a break to workers during the second half of the year because of an even spread of public holidays.

“It will mean that the Labour Day public holiday in Queensland will now be the same time as it is in New South Wales, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

A review of the 2011 amendment to the Holiday Act 1983 found that most people were in favour of Labour Day being moved to the latter part of the year instead of the Queen’s Birthday public holiday.

In the review 95 per cent of the respondents supported the move of a public holiday to the second half of the year.

Mr Bleijie said the reinstatement of the Queen’s Birthday public holiday back to June will also boost tourism in a traditionally quiet time of the year.

“Having the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in early June makes sense from a tourism perspective as it encourages people to make the most of the extra day off and take a mini-break away – whether it is to the coastal, mountain, outback or winery regions of Queensland,” he said.

“This change should also result in little, if any, additional costs to business in relation to penalty rates or paid days off as the number of public holidays per year has not increased – it is simply changing the time of the year in which Labour Day is observed.”

The changes to Queensland’s public holiday schedule will come into effect for 2013.

Media contact: Lisa O’Donnell – 0400 986 432