Sources: AAP and Australia public holidays. The Premier of the Australian State of Victoria, John Brumby, has refused to guarantee that Melbourne Cup Day (scheduled for November 6, in 2007) would remain a public holiday in 2007, if this year's Melbourne Cup Race is cancelled due to the current epidemic of equine influenza (horse flu).This current epidemic has crippled the horse racing industry in other states, such as New South Wales, where the Ballina Cup Race and the Lismore Cup Race were recently cancelled, as were the 2 local public holidays that are usually associated with these 2 races, as announced in the Government Gazette No. 116 of 7 September 2007, and the Government Gazette No. 127 on 21 September 2007).
Note that, since this year, the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) has begun observing a public holiday on the date of the Melbourne Cup Day (our posts of April 5 and July 29), but the impetus for that new public holiday, named Family and Community Day, comes from the previous cancellation of the Picnic Day public holiday, and therefore we do not expect this public holiday to be adversely affected, whatever happens to the horse race itself.
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