1 September 2026

Mr GAFFNEY (Mersey) - A minor and brief contribution, but as a neighbouring elected member, I think I should say just a little few more words supporting this. I rise to speak in support of the Statutory Holidays Amendment (Central Coast Municipality) Bill 2026, and its straightforward intent to put right a striking anomaly for the residents of the Central Coast municipality, and I thank the honourable member for Montgomery for bringing it on.

Show days have long been part of our history and come from a time when the local show was an annual event that brought people together to competitively show their stock and produce, and maybe to enjoy the trade stands, refreshment and entertainments that came with it. Perhaps Agfest is the modern embodiment of that history. Each municipality has, or had, a version of its show day that brought town and country together at a regular time of the year. The really traditional part of a show day which has evolved into a thing of its own is the ubiquitous show bag. Originally a sample bag given out by trade stands, it's now a profitable and welcome sideline for patrons of all ages. I remember the Cadbury one as being particularly good.

Times have changed and we've seen a number of traditional and longstanding shows cease to be. The loss of the historic Devonport Show with the sale of the showgrounds for development has been a particular blow, and that's a show with 108-year history that finished up 10 years ago, as the costs made running it prohibitive. We've also seen the Launceston Show fail to get up over the last three years for similar reasons. The irony is that we still have show day holidays on those dates that correspond to traditional timings of those shows as, or as we now call them, 'no-show day' holidays. That's not to say there aren't other highly successful community events. If we look to the Devonport region, we have the hugely successful New Year's Eve event, the Devonport Jazz and Blues Festival, the Regatta, Devonport Junior Soccer Cup, Devonport Eisteddfod and the Devonport Motor Show, all of which attract high attendances and keen local interest. If we look further into my municipality, we have the Latrobe Chocolate Winterfest, the Henley on the Mersey and stretching into Central Coast we have the new and highly successful two-day Ecofest at Camp Clayton. What we have is a general public interest in supporting a wide range of community events across a wide variety of dates and venues.

Perhaps that's where the honourable member's bill has a particular strength in the amendment to introduce the concept of an agreed day to be decided by employees and employers to best suit their circumstances. That's rather than the traditional fixed and inflexible day in the calendar. As the honourable member suggests in his speech, it offers a future flexibility of other municipal areas to opt for the same option, if they so choose, at any point in the future. The other strength in this is it foreshadows any complications that may arise if the government is successful in its desire to see fewer councils. The amendment automatically gives the opportunity to avoid a potential conflict of dates in a merger if the show days differ. In the case of Central Coast municipality, that's never been an issue, as it's never had a show day holiday. The bill makes a great deal of sense and it has perhaps been remiss of us all not to have picked up on it sooner. I, again, thank the honourable member for wanting to put it right, and I fully support the bill. Like the member for Rumney, I agree with the amendment, I think it strengthens the bill. So, I'll be supporting the bill and the amendment.