Roger Cook open to overhaul of WA’s public holiday calendar to bring State in line with rest of Australia

Premier Roger Cook has backed an overhaul of WA’s public holiday calendar, bringing the State in-line with the rest of Australia on days off.

Speaking at the WA Day Festival on Sunday, Mr Cook said while a review of our State’s dates was not an immediate priority, the idea of moving public holidays into national alignment was a smart piece of economic reform.

Bad weather saw the festival cancelled in June and moved forward to Sunday, November 24, at Burswood, where Australia and India are also playing in the first Test at Optus Stadium.

While all States and Territories share national public holidays for major days such as Christmas and Australia Day, some celebrations — such as Labour Day or the King’s Birthday — vary from State to State.

Speaking at WA Day on Sunday, Mr Cook said moving dates would make sense.

Such a change would mean businesses in WA would not be closed while those on the East Coast could trade and vice versa.

“I’m open to the idea of aligning our public holidays with the public holidays in the East Coast,” he said.

“That makes sense from an economic reform point of view.

“We’re here today, sucking up this beautiful late spring weather. I can understand why many people would see the opportunity… to just tweak these dates a bit so that we can celebrate WA Day in more warmer weather.

“We’ll consider it in due course.”

Originally called Foundation Day until 2011, WA Day comes on the first Monday in winter, and for the past few years has seen heavy rains in the lead up, causing headaches for festival organisers.

The public holiday also puts WA out of step with most of the nation’s King’s Birthday celebration a week later, with the State not marking it until the last Monday in September.