Grand Final Friday

Ms Patten (Northern Metropolitan):

My question is for the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade. The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) found just 12 per cent of the businesses that opened on the grand final holiday turned a profit. The Australian Industry Group (AIG) estimates the cost to Victorian businesses in lost production and wages was almost a billion dollars. South Australia, the ACT, Queensland and New South Wales all had public holidays on the Monday after the grand final, which is vastly preferable for businesses, particularly in hospitality. If you look at the businesses that deal with interstate custom, that weekend meant that they had to deal with two public holidays. So my question is — and I know we have discussed this before — will the government admit now that Monday would be a preferable day to Friday for the public holiday?

Supplementary:
I thank the minister for that contribution. I go back to the main point of my initial question, which was about having a public holiday on a Friday. For some businesses, particularly in Northern Metropolitan Region, 50 per cent of their turnover occurs on a Friday. On Monday that does not occur. So while, yes, New South Wales and Victoria may have the same number of holidays, having a holiday on Monday is far preferable to not only small business but, I would probably say, the Bulldogs fans in this state today.

However, my supplementary question to the minister is: given we have two years of data, we have got the information from VCCI and we have got the information from AIG, will the government consider at least reviewing the data, reviewing the situation and reconsidering changing the day from Friday to Monday for the grand final holiday?