If you are thinking of doing business with anybody in Canberra today (Monday Oct 10) then you'd better forget it. Today is a public holiday, something called Family and Community Day, one of two extra holidays Canberra fat cats get over and above everybody else.
Normally there is a valid reason for a holiday, whether it be tradition or religion. But this Canberra holiday was created for none of those reasons, it was instituted by the ACT Labor government in order to hit back at the Howard government in 2006. They wanted to make a political point.
Prior to the introduction of WorkChoices, the ACT had the trade union picnic day. Only members of unions could have the day off and an outdoor event was held on the day which fell in March. WorkChoices abolished the union picnic day, something which pleased business and anybody who wanted to get things done in the city. So rather than cop it sweet and acknowledge that the union picnic day was a discriminatory anachronism from another era, the ACT government responded by creating a whole new public holiday. For everybody. I call it The Holiday of Spite. Created to please Labor's union mates. The ACT government minister who created the holiday has even admitted that it was named Family and Community Day to make it as hard as possible for the Howard government to oppose it.
Originally the Family and Community Day holiday was held on Melbourne Cup Day. The ACT government wasted taxpayers' money holding a big event in a park by Lake Burley Griffin. Business hated it. Because Melbourne Cup day was a Tuesday, most people also took the Monday off, thus having a four day weekend. Workers didn't like it either because Melbourne Cup day was always a big event at work where bosses and staff could hold parties and celebrate whilst watching the big race. The hospitality industry had one of their biggest days taken off them, restaurant and function bookings disappeared.
After a few years of this madness, the ACT government called for public submissions into the holiday. Typical for a city of bludging public servants, only four percent of the submissions called for the abolition of the holiday altogether. It was moved to either the Monday before or after the October long weekend.
Very few people outside the public service are happy about this. Business still hates it and WorkChoices has since been abolished. There is little point still holding the holiday anymore, a union picnic day can be reinstituted. But once you give people a day off work it is almost impossible to take it off them again. So we have to tolerate it through gritted teeth.
So the best of luck to anybody trying to do business in Canberra today. I wouldn't be surprised if many interstate and overseas people decide that with the extra public holidays in the city, it is just not worth it and they take their business elsewhere.
