ANZAC Day Bill

“The holiday will be on that memorable day, the 25th of April. The Bill also amends the Liquor Act of 1912 making it necessary for all hotels to close on that day. Billiard rooms also are to be closed, the sale of liquor is forbidden and wines also. It is also provided – ‘The Home Secretary shall not grant a permit under the Totalisator Restriction Act of 1889, or any Act amending or in substitution for that Act, to any racing club to use a totalisator at any horse-racing meeting proposed to be held on Anzac Day.’
I think the Bill is acceptable to all members of this Chamber, and a similar measure has been passed in several of the other States. I therefore hope that the second reading may be carried. I do not propose to put it through the Committee state to-day. There is really no necessity to do that.
“We can take the Committee stage tomorrow, and that, I think, will meet the wishes of honourable gentlemen opposite who have spoken on the previous motion. There is no desire to rush any particular Bill through all its stages in one day when there is no necessity to do so. I propose to go into Committee on this Bill tomorrow, and to deal with what legislation may emanate from the Legislative Assembly. I beg to move – That the Bill be now read a second time.”

Hon. A.G.C. HAWTHORN [ Arthur George Clarence Hawthorn ] : “The Bill certainly will receive no opposition from this side. It is an opportunity, one of the few we have, of putting on the record the very great amount of gratitude we should express towards those who went from Australia to fight  the battles of the Empire. It will pass down to posterity in the form of a statute, and it will have the effect of showing our appreciation of those who voluntarily fought for their country.
“It is very little that we can do in the way of perpetuating the memory of those heroic men, but this will do it in the slight degree.
“I am glad to see that the Government do not propose that Anzac Day shall be treated as a festival day; that the means of holiday making shall be cut out, and that it shall be taken as a day sacred to the memory of those men who gave their lives that the Empire shall remain intact.
“I do not know that there is any need to stress this matter. It is one of the trivial things we may do, and I am sure everyone will agree that whatever we do for the Anzacs, it will never be sufficient to pay them for what they have done for us.”

Hon. E.W.H. FOWLES [ Edwin Wesley Howard Fowles ] : “The question arises as to whether the Government should not go a little further than this with regard to the Holidays Act, and while they are amending it in this direction – a direction with which everyone will heartily agree – they should consider the question of the amalgamation of holidays at the present time, or the doing away with some of them.
“The world is working to-day, and if the working men of Queensland were asked whether they were having too many holidays in single holidays, they with one voice would say ‘Yes’.
“A single holiday is no good to any man. That is why the Act of 1912 provided that, if a single holiday falls on the Thursday or Friday, it should he held on the Monday so as to give a man a chance of having Saturday, Sunday, and Monday holidays. A single holiday breaks into a man’s work. It is not really a holiday at all.”
The SECRETARY FOR MINES : “There is a great deal in your argument.”
Hon. E.W.H. FOWLES : “Single holidays are a nuisance. A man gets into the swing of his work for the week, and then he finds out Thursday is a holiday, and there is a break; or he finds Friday is a holiday, and he has to come back on Saturday morning. If we look at our Holidays Act, we find that there is quite a number of single holidays. The first day of January is a holiday. We cannot alter that.
“Then the 26th day of January is Foundation Day; the 1st day of March is St. David’s Day; the 17th day of March is St. Patrick’s Day; the 23rd day of April is St. George’s Day; and the 30th day of November is St. Andrew’s Day. If the people of Queensland really took a ballot on it they would cut out all the saints’ days. They would make Anzac Day the All Saints’ Day.
“The Anzacs are the real saints. In Russia they have about 193 saints’ days.”
The SECRETARY FOR MINES : “The greatest anomaly is that some workers get paid for holidays and other workers are forced to take their holidays without pay.”
Hon. E.W.H. FOWLES : “I was coming to that, and I am glad the Minister has mentioned it, as it will save me the trouble. I do not wish to say anything to offend any man, but we have Friendly Societies’ Day on the second Monday in September. I am a strong supporter of friendly societies, as they do excellent work, but nobody can contend that that holiday is observed.
“If you asked the ordinary man in the street when was Friendly Societies’ Day, he would not know. Nobody can contend that it is observed, yet the banks and the Government keep it. We really do not know who keeps it and who does not. Furthermore, in the Holidays Act it is provided that the Home Secretary can order any holiday to be held on the following Monday.
“If there is one holiday in the year that ought to be exempted from that provision, it should be Anzac Day. This Bill ought to have some provision in it saying Anzac Day ought to be held on the 25th April, and on no other day, whether it falls on Sunday, Monday, or any other day. That is as sacred a day for Australia as Christmas or Good Friday. I do not think the Home Secretary should have any power to alter that day.”

Hon. G. PAGE-HANIFY [ Gerald Page-Hanify ] : “It is not put in the same category as Good Friday and Christmas?”
Hon. E.W.H. FOWLES : “No, that is only in regard to the Liquor Act. This day ought to be on the 25th April, and no Government and no Minister should have the power to change the day. Let that be the sacred day of the year. Similar legislation to this is being passed in other States in the Commonwealth, only in one or two instances they say the day is to be observed as a Sunday. They do not have the restrictions with regard to the liquor selling or horse racing, but they say it must be observed as a Sunday. It is a Bill that might very well find support from all honourable gentlemen.”

Hon. A.J. THYNNE [ Andrew Joseph Thynne ] : “I am very glad that recognition has been made of Anzac Day, but I do see some little difficulty in regard to the observance of the day itself. In the War Council some time ago we had a good deal of discussion on the matter, and representations were made by men belonging to the Anzac forces who were strongly opposed to having any day except the 25th of April observed, and I think it will be found, if the Government try to alter that day, that there will be a strong opposition on the part of returned soldiers.
“They would insist on the observance of the 25th day of April, whether the Government make it a holiday or whether they do not.”
The SECRETARY FOR MINES : “That is the day stated in the Bill.”
Hon. A.J. THYNNE : “As the Hon. Mr Fowles has just pointed out, there is a provision by which the Minister may change the day to the following Monday.
“I think we ought to consult the feelings of the returned soldiers on the matter, and I have no doubt whatever that their great desire would be to have the 25th April, no matter on which day it falls – whether it was Saturday, Sunday, or Monday – and I must say my sympathies are entirely with them.”
Question put and passed.

 – from pages 1094 and 1095 of “Hansard” for the Queensland Legislative Council of Tuesday, 4 October 1921.
[ Reproduced with permission. ]