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Enjoy the holidays you have left in 2019, because this was an unusual boon year for public holiday hackers. A leading online travel insurer has analysed the year ahead and revealed that we will lose one public holiday nationally and have fewer opportunities to leverage public holidays to take extended breaks.

Last November, InsureandGo (insureandgo.com.au), one of Australia’s leading online travel insurers, found that we could take 17 days of annual leave in 2019 to make room for at least two domestic and three international holidays – up to 45 days of holidays all up.

In 2020, however, InsureandGo has revealed the holidays gods won’t be as good to us. Spokesperson Jonathan Etkind says: “This year, Easter practically collided with Anzac Day, enabling us to take a holiday as long as a typical Christmas break. Next year, Easter falls almost two weeks earlier (10-13 April), and won’t be anywhere near another public holiday. In addition, Anzac Day falls on a Saturday, giving us no weekday public holiday. Finally, with 25 December 2020 falling on a Friday, it’s highly likely that Christmas office closures will be shorter.

“Despite the shorter holidays, we encourage those taking a local trip to take out domestic travel insurance. Easter and Christmas, in particular, are busy periods, where trip delays and disruptions in Australia occur frequently. Domestic cover starts from as little as $32[1], and could be the difference between the price of having to buy your lunch a couple of days a week if you were still at work and thousands of dollars lost on pre-paid tours and accommodation expenses. It’s also important to book early, as flights can get expensive around the public holiday periods if you leave them to the last minute.”

Where 2020 will see us lose on public holidays: 

  • There will be no Anzac Day public holiday in 2020. This year, Anzac Day (25 April) fell on a Thursday, giving us a mid-week public holiday. In 2020, however, we won’t be so lucky, with Anzac Day falling on a Saturday. This means Aussie workers – all but those in Western Australia – won’t be given a public holiday on the following Monday.
  • We won’t be able to hack our way to a longer Easter break – the closest public holiday to Easter is three weeks later. If your workplace felt like a ghost town during the Anzac Day-Easter period this year, it’s because the two events gave us three public holidays in less than a week. Many of us were granted a 10-day break by taking just three days of annual leave. Next year, the Easter period falls 12 days earlier (10-13 April), and the closest public holiday will be three weeks later (Labour Day or ‘May Day’ on Monday 4 May) in Queensland and Northern Territory, or four weeks earlier (Labour Day, Monday 9 March) in Victoria, and Tasmania and (Canberra Day, Monday 9 March) in the ACT, or five weeks earlier (Labour Day, Monday 2 March) in Western Australia. Unlike this year, Aussie workers won’t be able to combine the four-day Easter break with another public holiday. 
  • For those who have office shutdowns, your workplace Christmas closure will be 3 days shorter next year. With Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday this year, it will have motivated most organisations to set their forced closures from Monday 23 December to Monday 6 January – giving Aussies a 16-day holiday. Next year, however, Christmas falls on a Friday and the first Monday after New Year’s Day is 4 January! For those who have office shutdowns, Monday 21 December will be too early for many organisations to force their closures. Realistically, these bosses are more likely to close their offices from Thursday 24 December and re-open them on Monday, 4 January – giving workers just 11 days off.
  • ACT residents lose 1-day off during Queen’s Birthday and Reconciliation Day. This year, ACT residents could leverage their Reconciliation Day (Monday 27 May) and Queen’s Birthday (Monday 10 June) public holidays to get a 17-day holiday with 9 days of annual leave. In 2020, they will be worse off: with the two public holidays falling on Monday 1 June and Monday 8 June respectively, ACT workers will be able to take a 15-day holiday with 8 days of annual leave.

 

Where 2020 will give us the same public holiday benefits as this year:

 

  • Australia Day public holiday. Every year, the Australia Day public holiday falls on 26 January. That is, unless the 26 January falls on a weekend, in which case, we get the day off on the following Monday (in 2020, it’s Monday 27 January). Nothing changes next year – as we saw this year, we will be able to take a 10-day holiday by combining it with two weekends and four days of annual leave from, say, Tuesday 28 January to Friday 31 January inclusive.

  • Queen’s Birthday. The Queen’s Birthday public holiday falls on a Monday each year, enabling us to take a three- or four-day long weekend with up to one annual leave day. As in 2019, residents in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT will celebrate this holiday in June (Monday 8 June in 2020), while West Australian residents will celebrate it in September (Monday 28 September) and Queenslanders in October (Monday 5 October 2020).

  • Mid-week public holidays. Once again, Victorian and Queensland residents are in the enviable position of enjoying a mid-week public holiday next year. For Victorians, Melbourne Cup falls on Tuesday 3 November and, for Brisbane residents, Ekka Day is on Wednesday 12 August. Residents can choose to take one day of annual leave for a four-day break, or four days of annual leave to enjoy a 9-day getaway.