Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2011
1680 COUNCIL Thursday, 2 June 2011
Ms PULFORD — If I can just ignore the
interjections for a minute and get back to what I was
talking about, Mr Wu undertook some work on the
effects of this legislation on specific sectors and the
impact on agricultural and pastoral societies and turnout
at some of the show days. This was documented, and
the media has reported on some of the impacts,
including the impact of that legislation on some of the
turf clubs. A number of years ago and over a period of a
couple of years Racing Victoria moved many of our
significant regional racing days to weekends, but a
number of them may have been the types of days that
people would have chosen to have as public holidays.
Ballarat is an example of a place where there was some
difficulty. In Ballarat there was quite some angst about
Cup Day and its show day, and some of the school
community leaders — —
Mr Ramsay interjected.
Ms PULFORD — That is right, Mr Ramsay. The
councils were required to make a decision, and as I said
in the instance of Golden Plains, it was a difficult
decision for it to make, and that was the case in a
number of municipalities. In my experience it was not
difficult for the majority, but for those for whom it was
a difficult decision, it was a really difficult decision.
In Ballarat leaders in the school communities advocated
that the best message to send to the community about
an important day of significance was that it ought to be
show day, when we celebrate the wonderful
contributions of our regional producers and provide an
opportunity for schools, which have a strong tradition
of taking a student-free day on show day. For them that
was the obvious day. Of course all the people who love
their gee-gees were in the other camp. It was a vexed
issue for a number of communities, and I have provided
but two examples. Again, I would like to thank Terence
Wu for the work he did for me on this issue a couple of
years ago, and members who are interested in the
history of the issue might find that his report is of some
assistance to them.
In 2010, in response to these issues, arrangements were
made for part-shire celebrations to recognise days of
local significance. What I think this demonstrates is that
this bill is unnecessary, because in 2010 a series of
part-shire arrangements were gazetted, and I will
quickly run through those shires. I have a list of most of
the municipalities affected, but I will just take members
through the shires where there are split arrangements. I
think this demonstrates that it is possible to have the
flexibility that communities want without needing to
change the legislation.
In Buloke shire, the Wycheproof show was celebrated
on 20 October for that part of the shire. The remainder
of the shire took Melbourne Cup Day. In Gannawarra,
the Kerang show was celebrated in the township of
Kerang, and the remainder of the shire took Melbourne
Cup Day.
In Golden Plains shire a logical and sensible solution
was achieved. The Geelong show was gazetted for
Friday, 15 October, for those east of Wingeel Road,
Gumley-Mount Mercer Road and Meredith-Mount
Mercer Road, and the Ballarat show was gazetted for
12 November. In the Greater Bendigo region Bendigo
Cup day was gazetted for Wednesday, 27 October, for
all areas west of the Campaspe River, and Tuesday,
2 November, was gazetted for the remainder of the
shire for the Heathcote show. This demonstrates for
people who live in those communities where it has been
necessary to make a decision that it is not that hard to
apply a little bit of common sense and draw a line on
the map covering areas that people in the affected
community know really well in order to have split
arrangements.
The Hepburn shire is also in my electorate, and on
12 November Clunes, Creswick, Smeaton and Newlyn
celebrated the Ballarat show, and the remainder of the
shire celebrated Melbourne Cup Day. The Hindmarsh
shire, which is again in Western Victorian Region,
celebrated the Rainbow show on Tuesday, 12 October,
in Rainbow, Kenmare and Albacutya; on 14 October
Nhill, Little Desert, Gerang Gerang, Kiata, Glenlee,
Netherby, Lorquon, Yanac, Broughton and Kaniva
celebrated the Nhill show; and everybody else
celebrated Melbourne Cup Day. That shire came up
with three separate arrangements under the existing
legislation.
In the Macedon Ranges shire the Kyneton Cup was
enjoyed by Cadello and Carlsruhe and by postcodes
3444, 3446 and 3458. The Kyneton Cup is a fine
occasion for celebrating. Other areas celebrated
Melbourne Cup Day. In the Mildura rural city
municipality there were two arrangements.
Yarriambiack, as I referred to briefly earlier,
demonstrates the flexibility that is possible under the
existing legislation better than anywhere else, and on
Friday, 1 October, the Murtoa show was celebrated in
Murtoa, and on 5 October the Minyip show was
celebrated in Minyip. On 6 October the people in
Rupanyup went to the Rupanyup show, on 7 October
Warracknabeal celebrated the Warracknabeal show,
and on 2 November everybody else had Melbourne
Cup Day.