Residents are being urged to have their say on changes to public holidays as proposed by the State Government this week.

Member for Cook, Jason O'Brien MP, said a discussion paper released by Premier Anna Bligh included proposals to move the Queen’s Birthday public holiday to the second half of the year; extend the Easter state school holiday break from six days to two weeks; and allocating an extra public holiday when Christmas, Boxing, or New Year’s days fall on a weekend.

Mr O'Brien said the review was prompted by calls from the public and various stakeholders to spread public holidays more evenly throughout the year and to reconsider current arrangements for student-free days in schools.

“With most of the public holidays currently clustered in the first half of the year, it means there are no statewide public holidays in the six months between the Queen’s Birthday public holiday in June and Christmas Day in December,” he said.

“We want to hear what you think about moving the Queen’s Birthday holiday to later in the year and, if so, what date would be best.”

The discussion paper also seeks feedback on what should happen when Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day fall on a weekend, to ensure workers who have to work on these days receive appropriate entitlements.

Premier, Anna Bligh, said extending the Easter state school holiday to two weeks from 2012 would align state schools with the non-state sector and follows parent feedback that long first terms were tiring, especially for younger students, and student-free days scattered throughout the year disruptive.

“This will help even out the school terms across the year and provide a more consistent duration for terms one, two and three,” she said.

Parents, students, teachers, the general public and the business community can state their opinion via an online survey until October 31.