Roger Cook flags big changes for WA’s public holidays

West Australians could end up with an additional day off as Roger Cook says lining up the state’s holidays with those on the east coast could improve productivity.

WA Premier Roger Cook celebrating Labor’s March election win with wife Carly Lane. Picture: Colin Murty

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Australia’s richest state is set to overhaul its public holidays – including potentially adding another day off – under a review flagged by West Australian Premier Roger Cook.

As West Australians trudged into offices across the state while much of the rest of Australia marked the King’s Birthday public holiday on Monday, Mr Cook signalled changes that could bring WA into line with the other states and territories.

West Australians mark WA Day – which commemorates the founding of the Swan River Colony in 1828 – on the first Monday of June each year, a quirk which means the public holiday for the monarch’s birthday is bumped to late September. The state’s other official public holiday, Labour Day, does not align with any other state holiday.

Speaking to reporters in Perth on Monday, Mr Cook said he wanted a greater alignment between WA and east coast public holidays.

Matching up WA’s holidays with those on the east coast, he said, could improve productivity.

Mr Cook said he had received feedback from the business community that they would prefer a better alignment with public holidays around the country.

“It’s ridiculous you have a situation where Western Australia closes its doors or shuts the shop when the east coast is open for business, and today of course you’ll have frustrated members of the Western Australian community, and business community in particular, that can’t access their colleagues on the east coast,” he said.

“So I think there’s definitely a case for a real realignment of public holidays to make sure that they’re better synched with the east coast’s public holidays and that’s some work my office is doing at the moment.”

While WA Day is officially commemorated in June, the main celebration in Perth takes place in November, when weather conditions are more amenable.

WA has fewer public holidays than Victoria and the ACT, but has one more official day off than NSW.

Mr Cook said the review by his office would also assess whether the state should have an extra public holiday.

“As punters often remind me, we have fewer public holidays than they do on the east coast and I take that on board,” Mr Cook said.

“But I do want to see better alignment between our public holiday system and that which exists in the other states. We are part of a national economy and we should be working together much better to ensure better alignment around these days.”

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia chief economist Aaron Morey said that while aligning WA’s public holidays with those of the rest of the country made sense, adding another public holiday did not.

“I mean, how many birthdays does the King need anyway?” he said.

Public holidays require many businesses to pay higher penalty rates to those who are required to work on those days.

Mr Morey said introducing an extra public holiday would only add more pressure to small businesses in particular.

“Public holidays create a huge headache for small business, and small businesses right now are really doing it tough,” he said.

“Someone might see a public holiday as a benefit, but for a small business they just see another day when they’ve got to pay $65 an hour for someone to wash dishes. It’s really difficult for small businesses to navigate and to plan around public holidays.”

While most states and territories marked the King’s Birthday holiday on Monday, WA observes it in late September and Queensland in early October. For the record, King Charles’ actual birthday is November 14.

WA’s updated public holiday schedule is likely to be in place by 2027.