Those south of the Queensland border may have heard of the Brisbane Exhibition — or the Ekka as it colloquially called — held annually and running for a week or more. It is equivalent to the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the sunshine state.

It is accompanied by a public holiday in Brisbane and also for surrounding local authorities so their residents too can attend. In some cases ,it coincides with their own local show.

Last year’s Ekka was cancelled because of the COVID.

This year’s Ekka was scheduled but cancelled at the last minute with the latest state government initiated South-East Queensland lockdown.

Consequently, and logically, the public holiday for Brisbane this Wednesday — August 11 — was postponed. After all, how can you have a holiday for a non-event?

While two other nearby local governments, Scenic Rim and Moreton Bay, followed Brisbane’s lead and postponed their scheduled Ekka public holiday, due today, many others which did not have their own local event didn’t.

So, on Monday, August 9, nearby large local authority areas like Redlands, Logan and Lockyer and more distant ones like the Burnetts are having a holiday for a non-event. They claim they did not have enough time to cancel.

So there you have it — in Australia we now have public holidays for non-events. Now what was that concern about the nation’s declining productivity we heard voiced by the Prime Minister before the pandemic?

Scott Prasser is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.