Sources: The Canberra Times and Australia public holidays. Tomorrow, for the first time, the Melbourne Cup public holiday (first Tuesday in November) will be celebrated in 2 of Australia's states; Victoria (with capital Melbourne) and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).In Victoria, it has now become a habit of taking the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day off, to have a 4-day weekend. The VECCI (Victorian Employer Chamber of Commerce and Industry) estimates that that up to a third of Melbourne workers took the day off today. This often poses problems with schools in Melbourne who are supposed to hold classes on the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day, and Victoria schools outside of Melbourne, who do not even get the Cup Day off.
As we had reported on April 5, the ACT Government made Melbourne Cup day (actually called Family and Community Day) a public holiday, this year, because the federal WorkChoices laws abolished Canberra's traditional union picnic day. The ACT Government gazetted the Melbourne Cup holiday for this year only, but said it was committed to it for next year, and would reassess it in 2009. Business is pushing hard to abolish this new public holiday, but thousands have taken today off to make a four-day break, and some public service departments are expected to be almost deserted today.
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