Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2011
1678 COUNCIL Thursday, 2 June 2011
read out contributions from past students telling stories
about past teachers, sports days, singing the times tables
with a teacher playing guitar and even getting the strap.
Members of the school community then formed an arch
by linking their hands above heads, and the oldest
registered school attendee, 86-year-old Olga Tomkins,
and the youngest student, 5-year-old Alannah
Fitzgerald, led the principal and current students on a
walk through the arch to the new school.
The new school’s excellent facilities, open spaces,
ultra-modern IT equipment, modern learning facilities
and first-class high-ball gymnasium, together with the
wonderful staff and supporters of the school, will
ensure that Anglesea students get the best possible start
in life. I congratulate everyone involved in this great
new school — the staff, students, parents, friends,
architects and construction workers, the Surf Coast
Shire Council and the previous state Labor
government — for making this possible. You only have
to see the number of people who turned out on what
was a very wet Sunday afternoon to know that the
Anglesea community is thrilled with its new school and
strongly values the old school’s past and the new
school’s future.
Israel Independence Day
Mr LENDERS (Southern Metropolitan) — Last
night I had the privilege of attending a celebration of
the 63rd anniversary of Israel’s independence. I have
been to many of these over many years, and as always
it was a great bipartisan occasion where members of
Parliament and members of the Jewish community, the
consulate service and a range of others got a chance to
celebrate the independence of Israel and the
63 extraordinary years since the formation of the state.
It always puts a chill down the back of your neck when
you hear Hatikvah played and sung well. It was great to
be there again.
This year I have also had the privilege, like all of us in
this house, of attending many Australia Day functions,
in particular one in January. At the time I felt great
pride in our country that we can celebrate the
achievements of Australia’s great multicultural society,
just as Israel is a great multicultural society.
The trifecta for me, coming from a Dutch heritage, was
in May when I had the great privilege of attending a
Dutch community function at the Abel Tasman Dutch
Club just down the road from my home in Carnegie.
The function celebrated the Queen of The Netherlands
ball, the Queen’s birthday and Liberation Day, which is
a great day for the Dutch to celebrate. The country has
gone through a traumatic time, but the new generations
can look back and celebrate the country re-achieving
democratic rights and moving forward.
I have attended at least these three independence or
celebratory days. I look forward to attending many
more. I took great joy last night in participating in
Israel’s Independence Day.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL
2011
Second reading
Debate resumed from 26 May; motion of
Mr DALLA-RIVA (Minister for Employment and
Industrial Relations).
Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria) — I am pleased
to speak for a moment this morning on the Public
Holidays Amendment Bill 2011. I welcome the
opportunity to talk about the importance of public
holidays and celebrating our regionally significant
occasions, like show days and racing days. In Victoria
we are all pretty keen on our show days, racing days
and other occasions, and these days are particularly
important to communities in regional Victoria.
This issue has an interesting history that I would like to
recap. In June 2008 the then Minister for Small
Business, Joe Helper, introduced legislation into
Parliament that endeavoured to correct a historical
anomaly where some regional councils observed
11 public holidays and others observed just 10. A
number of municipalities had not taken up Melbourne
Cup Day or another day of local significance. Around
28 municipalities were the beneficiaries of that change,
and I am told that change affected something of the
order of 500 000 people.
The legislation the Labor Party introduced was part of
work we were doing around public holiday legislation
where one of the important principles was national
consistency and ensuring that everybody had the same
number of public holidays. The public holiday
arrangements of many people do not come about as a
result of the gazetting of a holiday or by way of the
Public Holidays Act 1993, because there are many and
varied arrangements that determine people’s
employment.
A great many people are covered by national
employment standards and others are covered by an
enterprise bargaining agreement in their workplaces or
an award. These arrangements are terribly varied. It is
entirely possible that in the one household you could