Peter Law: We don’t need a day off to mourn the Queen

It was case of “damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t” for Anthony Albanese and the question of whether to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II with a public holiday. But that’s not going to stop me from making the case the decision by the Prime Minister and State premiers to give Australians the day off work or school was completely unnecessary. For the sake of full disclosure, my wife I will be among those still working on Thursday, September 22 and we do have two primary school aged-children now needing last-minute childcare. But the minor inconvenience for my family pales in comparison to the disruption that will be caused for countless others who will suffer more serious consequence for their finances and health. On my opening point, Albanese has himself conceded he would have been criticised — and probably be accused of disrespecting the Queen — had he not made the national day of mourning an extra public holiday. That political calculation would have been at the forefront of the his mind given he is a republican who took the unprecedented step after Labor’s election victory to create a post of “assistant minister for the republic”. The PM’s tactful refusal to engage in the republican debate in the past week was unsurprising from a leader who has so far proven he carefully considers his words before speaking. But I have yet to hear a convincing argument from anyone about why a public holiday is required in order for people to be able to show their respect. Albanese initially said this was a “one-off, one-in-70-year event” to commemorate the Queen’s service to Australia, but by the next day he was pointing to “protocols” that had “been in place for a long period of time”. These protocols stipulated the National Memorial Service be held in Canberra the day after he and the Governor General return from London. That’s reasonable, but the protocols did not require a public holiday — and not one three days after the State funeral, which is obviously the moment when those who want to reflect on the Queen’s life can do so in front of the TV on Monday night. St Georges Cathedral in the CBD is also holding a special service of commemoration, where mourners can sing some of Her Late Majesty’s favourite hymns, on Monday morning ahead of the state funeral that evening. While plenty will happily take an extra day off work and turn it into a five-day break by booking Friday off and combining it with WA’s Queen’s Birthday holiday on September 26, there are plenty of unintended consequences. The most significant of which is that scores of public hospital patients across the country will have their surgeries delayed due to staff being rostered off. Australian Medical Association WA president Mark Duncan-Smith said about 400 elective surgeries were carried out in WA’s public hospitals each day and he expected fewer than 100 would get done on the public holiday. Many of these operations would have been booked months in advance and authorities are now scrambling to reschedule them, which is no easy task when the wait list has blown-out to more than 29,000 patients. The nation’s health system is playing catch up after more than two years of COVID disruption and it’s hard to fathom why anyone should wait a single day longer for their treatment due to the Queen’s passing. Asked how many surgeries would be delayed, and the extra cost of paying staff penalty rates, a WA Health spokeswoman said: “As staffing is still being determined at each hospital, it is not possible to provide an estimate relating to overall pay or rescheduled surgeries for that day”. A memo from senior management at Fiona Stanley Hospital said the “most critical and complex elective procedures” would be prioritised to proceed as planned, pending staff availability, but others would be rescheduled. “I acknowledge the frustration this may cause,” it said. Ramsay Health Care, which runs Hollywood Private Hospital and Joondalup Health Campus, said it would reschedule some day programs and infusion services, but would proceed with some surgical and procedural lists as planned “where there is capacity to do so”. Scheduled sittings of the State and Federal parliaments have also been suspended for one and two weeks respectively, meaning legislative agendas are being pushed back and governments face less scrutiny. I’ve even seen a State MP cancel a planned meet and greet with constituents “as a mark of respect”. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA pointed out that it was small and medium-sized businesses who would bear the financial cost given the usual late night shopping hours had been axed and those who do choose to open must pay penalty rates to staff. I’m not going to presume how the Queen would have expected to mark her passing, but her stoicism and resilience through good times and bad were among her many traits that made her so admired. If we want to mourn her passing and celebrate the Queen’s life that’s a personal choice, but in modern-day Australia we don’t need governments to make that decision for us.