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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-10 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Given the government's announcement that it intends to declare Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve from 5pm to midnight as public holidays, and given that the minister is the minister responsible for the Holidays Act, is it the minister's intention to issue a proclamation every year for these public holidays or does he intend to bring in legislation to amend the Holidays Act or, as with many other things, does he have no idea?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:04): I thank the member for his partly very good question. I have always been a proud member of the Labor Party and also a proud member of this cabinet but there comes a time when an opportunity arises for me to get up and speak about an issue which I think is a spectacular reform in this state, and it gives me much pleasure to do so.

The government has now declared that Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve will be public holidays. The reason it has done that is that, while people are at home or out enjoying themselves on these very special occasions, there are people out there who are serving us and looking after us—nurses, firefighters, police, people serving us drinks in hotels and the like—and we believe that they deserve penalty rates if it is in accordance with their awards and agreements, of course. It is something that is a true Labor thing to do. We are developing a discussion paper for the Holidays Act and, hopefully, that will go out soon. We will then be able to discuss the way in which it will be introduced with the various—

The Hon. R.I. Lucas interjecting:

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: If that is probably the best way of doing it, yes. But we have a discussion paper to come out, and I will not make any ironclad guarantee how it is going to be done until we have proper consultation with all the parties involved.

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