Don’t get too excited…it’s only one issue, they have a very long way to go before they can accurately claim to be in possession of all their senses (I don’t think they ever had all of them) but it’s a start.
After this year, Melbourne Cup day will no longer be a public holiday [1], ending their bizarre experiment of turning one of the better days for the ACT economy in to a “everyone stay at home while we have a temper tantrum about the Howard government’s industrial reforms” day.
That said, Family and Community day will still be a public holiday, just on a different day. Not being one who likes simplicity, the rules which decide when this public holiday will fall are much more convoluted than necessary.
[..] to be held on the first Monday of the September/October school holidays [except] where the first Monday of the school holidays falls on the currently designated Labour Day public holiday, such as will occur in 2011 and 2012, the Family and Community Day will be moved to the second Monday of the term break
Why he can’t just pick a single date is beyond me, but such is life, and I’ll just be glad for the moment that the return to workday Melbourne Cups, for which I have argued [2], has finally occurred.
Samuel