Western Australia will add two public holidays to its annual calendar and move the dates of three others under changes announced by Premier Roger Cook on Saturday.
Easter Saturday will be added as a public holiday alongside Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, and a new weekday off called Show Day will be introduced to coincide with the first Monday of the September–October school holidays. The changes are expected to take effect in 2028 and will be enabled by the Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Bill 2025, which the government intends to introduce into the Western Australian Parliament this week.
The government said regional councils would have the option to hold Show Day on another date in September to reflect local agricultural shows and events. The additions and date changes are part of a broader reshuffle intended to align several Western Australia public holidays with those in other Australian states and territories.
Under the proposals, the King’s Birthday, currently observed in late September during Royal Show week, will be moved to the second Monday in June to mirror other jurisdictions. Western Australia Day will no longer be held in June and will instead be observed on the second Monday in November. Labour Day will shift to the second Monday in March; in state election years it would move to the third Monday in March to avoid an election falling over a long weekend.
Premier Cook told The Sunday Times the government had received "overwhelming" public support for the changes when the idea was first put forward earlier this year. The government has said the changes aim to provide greater consistency with national practice and give families predictable long weekends around school holidays.
Easter Saturday’s inclusion will leave Tasmania as the only state or territory not to observe that day as a public holiday. The King’s Birthday change brings Western Australia into line with the majority of jurisdictions that mark the holiday in June rather than during the spring agricultural show season.
The Public and Bank Holidays Amendment Bill 2025 is expected to set out the new dates and the mechanisms for regional flexibility on Show Day. The government did not provide a detailed implementation timetable beyond the target start year of 2028. More detailed provisions and transition arrangements will be debated in Parliament once the bill is introduced.
Opposition parties and business groups were not quoted in the announcement, and the government has not yet released an impact assessment on the changes for employers, schools or public services. The introduction of the bill this week will begin the parliamentary process required to formalise the new public holiday calendar.