Victoria is winning on Public Holidays!
Victoria is winning on Public Holidays!
Well, tied with a few other states for highest number. And we have 12, compared to the lowest states which have 11. But I'm taking it as a win!
There are so few at this time of year though, it's a long cold gap.
This link's numbering system seems sketchy.
I note it said Queensland has "eleven and a half" public holidays. Its description then mentions two separate half-day holidays, one for Christmas Eve and "a half-day in August for the Royal Queensland Show". Two halves can't result in a whole... And anyway, the Ekka holiday isn't a half day. It's a whole day off.
Using the Victorian Government's website, I count 13 holidays in Vic. In Queensland, I count 12.5. I haven't looked at the other states, but someone probably should, to get a more reliable result.
I think they were desperately trying to make a story from nothing. There was also a lot of creative rewording to make "the same number as lots of other states" sound like there was some sort of actual ranking order there.
The other confounding factor is that not all public holidays are state wide - Melbourne gets Melbourne Cup Day, but regional areas often don't. I remember Warnambool had a half day off for something else on another day instead.
Reading the Vic Govt page I linked, it at least sounds like everyone in Vic gets the same number? Everyone gets Melbourne Cup, unless their local council chooses to substitute that for another day. But nobody doesn't get any day.
I'm not actually sure if Qld is the same or not. Brisbane gets Ekka, and a number of other councils have their own Show Days, but I don't know if it's every council or not.
I'd be willing to sacrifice a public holiday if it meant they were more evenly distributed through the year. I really appreciated that public holiday we got on 22 Sept last year for Queen's Elizabeth - it's a big gap between June and November otherwise.