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General News

26 May, 2020

Public Holidays to remain

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, most regional shows across Far North Queensland have either been moved or postponed.

By Phil Brandel

Public Holidays to remain - feature photo

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, most regional shows across Far North Queensland have either been moved or postponed.

With the cancellations comes the question, do we still celebrate the public holiday associated with the show despite the event itself being cancelled?

All regional show public holidays are applied by the respective councils to the Department of Industrial Relations for approval.

In a written statement from Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace:

“Under the Public Holidays Act, the Minister has the power to appoint show holidays across the state each year based on nominations from individual councils in line with their respective show holiday dates.

If any councils wish to change or postpone their nominated show holiday to a later date because of COVID-19, I encourage them to write to me with that request.

While any such requests will be given favourable consideration in the circumstances until any changes are made show public holidays will remain as they are”

The Cairns show public holiday is observed on July 17 and applies not only to the Cairns region but also parts of the Mareeba Shire excluding the Parishes of Irvinebank, Myosotis, Western, Mowbray, Salisbury, Riflemead and that part of the Parish of Garioch located north of Hunter and Rifle Creeks.

A spokesperson from Cairns City Council said “Any decision to change the Cairns Show public holiday would be a decision of Council."

“At this stage, Council has not considered a change to the date, nor has Council received any formal approach from the Cairns Show Association about possibly changing the date.”

On May 16 Tablelands Regional Council (TRC) posted on their social media that “July 7 is still a public holiday event, even though this year's Atherton Show has been cancelled and Malanda Show has been postponed.”

A spokesperson for the Douglas Shire Council said a decision hadn’t been made yet regarding the Mossman show public holiday on July 22.

 

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