VICTORIA'S councils will lobby the State Government to have local public holidays reinstated in a show of support for agricultural shows and race meets.
The action follows a decision by the Government which forced councils to allocate one public holiday for their entire council, or the default Melbourne Cup holiday.
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The decision caused uproar in some councils which had previously allocated several holidays for various local events.
At its recent state conference, the Municipal Association of Victoria passed a resolution to lobby the Government to repeal amendments to the Public Holidays Act so councils could once again declare half or full-day public holidays that applied to specific sections of their municipalities.
MAV president Bill McArthur said there was unqualified support for the motion as councils were unhappy at being forced to divide their communities over the issue.
"In my own council, Golden Plains, half our area relates to Geelong and the other relates to Ballarat, so instead of choosing to favour one area over the other, we went with the Melbourne Cup, but as a result we are not supporting local events," he said.
"I hope the minister will listen as this is having a major impact," he said.
Meanwhile, publicity about the issue helped the Heathcote Show record a good crowd last week.
Heathcote Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society secretary-treasurer Garry Nettle said gate numbers at the show were similar to last year (800-1000) as many locals had defied the law change.
But Mr Nettle said the show committee had been very concerned that the lack of a public holiday would badly affect the show.
"I really hope the minister will wake up and revisit what he is doing and see how this decision is affecting small communities like ours and give us back our holiday," he said.
Victorian Small Business Minister Joe Helper said as a result of the changes, for the "first time this year, an extra 500,000 people across Victoria will get an 11th public holiday they did not have before".
"As this is the first full year the changes have come into effect, the Government will monitor the new arrangements to see how it has worked for different shires," he said.
