Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011 COUNCIL 1681
The existing legislation provides for flexibility, and that
is demonstrated by the arrangements that people
entered into last year. I have a couple of questions to
ask in the committee stage about the half-day
arrangements that are proposed, because the legislation
seems pretty clearly to refer to Melbourne Cup Day or
two half-days, and I am interested in exploring the idea
of how the half-days work with the regional overlay
and how that can all fit together. We might get to the
nitty-gritty of that a bit later on, but on the question of
half-days, I suggest that two half-days is not quite the
same as a full day.
Mr P. Davis — Two halves don’t make a whole?
Ms PULFORD — They generally do, but when you
need to apply that ‘two halves making a whole’ notion
to industrial arrangements that talk about ‘a day’, it
adds additional complexity.
As members of the Legislative Assembly indicated
during the debate on the bill in that place, some
members have received correspondence from the Shop
Distributive and Allied Employees Association which
undertook a survey of its members. I do not know if
any other employee groups have been widely surveyed
on this question. The only feedback I have received that
directly relates to this legislation applies to that union’s
membership, which covers the retail sector. However,
the union surveyed its regional members and not its
metropolitan members. It asked the question if they
wanted to keep a full public holiday, either Melbourne
Cup Day or whichever local holiday applied through
the existing flexible arrangements, or if they would be
happy with two half-day public holidays.
I spoke with Michael Donovan, secretary of the shop
assistants union about this, and I think he was a little
taken aback at how high the take-up in this survey was
and at how quickly many people had responded.
Everybody loves our regional public holidays and we
take them all very seriously. Up to 3 May Mr Donovan
had received responses from 1537 people who said they
preferred a full day and 28 people who preferred the
two half-day alternatives. That information from the
people who would be affected by the half-day
proposition is not insignificant.
Mr Donovan makes an argument, which I support,
about the impact on people of a half-day arrangement,
because when you are having a day off, it is nice to
have a whole day off. I know Mr Davis’s comment
about two half-days making a full day is right when you
think about an 8-hour day and you do 4 hours here and
4 hours there, but we need to take note of the impact of
being at work for two of those days — and these are
important social events. A day at the races often starts a
little bit before midday or 1 o’clock in the afternoon in
my experience.
Mr P. Davis — You have got to do your hair.
Ms PULFORD — You have to do your hair, do
your nails and foof your fascinator — that kind of
thing. Half-day arrangements also have a
tendency — —
Mr P. Davis interjected.
Ms PULFORD — I do not think my hair needs
much more foofing than yours, Mr Davis, but others
have more to work with. I could be distracted by the
Spring Racing Carnival fashion thing, but I will resist
the urge to go down that path.
On a more serious note, the havoc half-days wreak with
child-care arrangements is but one obvious example of
the difficulties caused by half-day holidays. In my
experience most long-day child-care arrangements are
full-day arrangements. I have had plenty of experience
with child care. When people pay for a child-care place,
particularly a permanent place, they pay for the whole
day, so people may be paying the full amount for half
the time. I do not think the government has thought
about these arrangements much when advancing this
legislation.
Nhill has a large and significant employer, Luv-a-Duck,
which I have had the opportunity of visiting a number
of times. Members will be familiar with Mr Millington
and Luv-a-Duck’s products.
Mr Koch interjected.
Ms PULFORD — I know Mr Koch is familiar with
Luv-a-Duck. The company now does wonderful value
adding, and its products are accessible to customers and
through supermarket shelves and not just in Asian
restaurants. We can all get into a fine bit of duck. That
company was able to develop its business with the
support of the Regional Infrastructure Development
Fund — but I digress!
Luv-a-Duck has an enterprise bargaining agreement
(EBA) which provides for New Year’s Day, Good
Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day
and Boxing Day, being standard national public
holidays. Other days vary from state to state, including
Australia Day, Anzac Day, Queen’s Birthday and
Labour Day. Clause 32.1.3 in the EBA states:
Nhill Show Day, which by agreement with the majority of the
employees may be observed on the Friday immediately
following Nhill Show Day …