It’s time to level the playing field for the long weekend.

Australia is supposedly the land of the fair go, an egalitarian state in which all people are treated equally. We have generous annual leave provisions, leave loading – that wonderful thing where employers pay you extra to go on holiday – and what I thought was a decent number of public holidays. But as a resident of NSW, I was gobsmacked to discover we fall behind other states with only 11 days off.

South Australia comes out on top with 14, the lucky ducks, thanks to Adelaide Cup Day in March and New Year’s Eve. With extra leave for the AFL grand final and Melbourne Cup, Victorians get 13 public holidays a year. Queenslanders have 12, Western Australians have 11 and poor Tasmanians bring up the rear with only 10 days off. Anyone else think we should even the playing field nationally?

I have a recent, newfound appreciation for long weekends. Working on staff at newspapers, I was in the office while everyone else had a sleep-in – don’t feel too sorry for me, they made it up to us with six weeks’ annual leave. As a freelancer pre-kids, I’d also use it as a chance to catch up on work. But with two tiny dictators who don’t go to daycare on public holidays, I’m forced to take the day off. And, to state the obvious, it’s great.

Not only do I get to spend time with my little family without the pressures of having to be somewhere at a certain time, but I also get to hang out with friends who also happen to have the day off. I can’t believe I missed out on this joy all these years. It took a while, but I finally understand the excitement in the lead-up to a free day off.

The benefits of a public holiday speak for themselves

A public holiday is an enforced break and one that pays dividends when it comes to connecting with family, friends and community. According to clinical psychologist, Dr Anastasia Hronis, an extra day off can also have profound impacts on mental health.

“There’s the component of looking forward to it. People are talking about it and it’s a bit of a mark in the diary that can help punctuate a year. When we can break the year down into smaller chunks, it feels more manageable," she says. It’s also an incentive to escape the daily grind and go away for a few days. Because we know that an extra day off at home can often be overtaken by the odd jobs you haven’t had time to do during the week.

“Part of the mental health benefits of travel is the novelty. When we do something that’s new and novel, there’s an excitement to it and that activates dopamine in the brain – it feels good," Dr Hronis says.

“Having new experiences that are exciting and enjoyable is a healthy way to get that dopamine activation, which boosts overall mood and wellbeing. It’s much harder to activate dopamine in the daily grind.

“Dopamine is also activated not just when we do the pleasurable thing, but in the lead up, which is why planning the holiday is also enjoyable."

Dr Hronis and I are not the only ones who think an extra day off promotes well-being. The Legislative Assembly even has an ePetition calling for Fairer Public Holidays for NSW More Family & Community Time.

NSW residents can sign the petition, which states: “To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly. We, the undersigned petitioners, believe we should enjoy the same number of public holidays as other states. Currently, NSW has only 11 public holidays, while most others enjoy 12 or 13. NSW only has one public holiday between June and December. Public holidays are important days for communities to pause, for families to gather and for shared time to connect. Public holidays promote social cohesion. We ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to introduce a new public holiday – ‘Family & Community Day’ to be observed in September each year – to promote the well-being and cohesion of our community."

Support of the regions

The Mudgee region is on board with this; it has also launched a petition proposing an additional public holiday for NSW. Its research for the Mudgee Monday campaign reveals that 72 per cent of Australians want more public holidays – no surprises there – and 51 per cent support a nationally standardised public holiday count.

The flip side of the public holiday argument is that it’s too expensive for businesses. Staffing costs are up to two-and-a-half times higher on public holidays and many venues try and recoup that by adding a surcharge that spans 10-20 per cent of the bill.

A report by Money.com revealed that over the back-to-back Easter and Anzac Day long weekends, $24.6 million of the additional $98.4 million spent in cafes, restaurants and takeaway, went towards surcharges.  But there’s a balance to be had. More visitors create more revenue – that $98.4 million is money that wouldn’t otherwise have been spent – and if those visitors are happy to pay the extra for another day off, then businesses win out. While the cost of living is high, most people recognise that those working while everyone else is off need to be compensated.

Mudgee Region Tourism Chief Marketing Officer, Beau Kassas, says the economic impact of another public holiday is extensive.

“A third of every dollar spent in Mudgee is by a visitor and we know that on long weekends that third of every dollar nearly doubles," he says.

“Staying that extra day, being able to enjoy a whole afternoon and evening before driving home on the Monday is injecting more cash into the local economy."

The Mudgee Monday campaign also reveals that 57 per cent of Australians believe an extra long weekend each year would reduce burnout and stress. And the science backs it up. According to peer-reviewed research published in Nature Human Behaviour, employees who had a four-day work week with a full-time salary had better performance, physical and mental health and less burnout.

In July, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union pushed for it, citing that shorter working hours would result in productivity gains. While the NSW public service offers a compressed working week as part of its flexible working arrangements, where employees work the same number of hours a week, compressed into a shorter time period, it is not the norm across industries.

I’m lucky that freelancing offers me flexibility and technically every week is a short one for me. But that day is not spent tending to my mental health, rather it allows time for life admin tasks that are just as demanding as paid work but aren’t seen as important enough to dedicate days to them; such as tending to elderly relatives, taking children to appointments and staying on top of the never-ending pile of washing.

Doing all of that outside the traditional 9-5 is stressful, especially for those of us squarely in the sandwich generation looking after small kids as well as ageing parents. A public holiday is a breather. A chance to stop and get off the carousel of the to-do list. And seeing that 47 per cent of Australians have taken sick leave for a personal break or getaway, you might as well make it official and plan for it with another scheduled day off.

What do you think? Is it time to even out the national number of public holidays for NSW?