WA’s new public holiday dates revealed

After months of consultation, the state government has finally revealed WA’s new-look public holiday calendar, including two new additional days off a year and changes to three existing dates.

In the major shakeup, WA Day, currently in June and often dampened by wet weather, will be moved to the second Monday in November.

WA Premier Roger Cook announced the new public holiday calendar on Sunday. Credit: Ross Swanborough

In its place, the King’s Birthday public holiday will be moved from late September to the second Monday in June, to better align with other states.

And Labour Day, currently on the first Monday in March, will shift to the second Monday of the same month, and in election years, it will be the third Monday to avoid voting falling over a long weekend.

A new weekday public holiday, to be known as Show Day, will be added to the calendar for the first Monday of the Term 3 school holidays (September and October), to align with the Perth Royal Show.

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The second additional public holiday will be Easter Saturday, which also brings WA in line with most other states, which already have the day as an official holiday, as well as Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

WA currently has the lowest number of public holidays per year at 11, while Victoria has 13 and the Northern Territory has 14.

The changes are expected to be introduced into WA Parliament this week and come into effect from 2028.

Despite WA Premier Roger Cook saying the overhaul had overwhelming support from the public, its own analysis showed it will require WA employers to fork out an extra $147 million a year in wages.

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