What is a long weekend, and why does it matter?
Regulation 71(5) of the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Regulation 2017 defines long weekend. Basically for a public holiday other than Christmas and New Years, it will be the weekend, the actual declared public holiday, and one other day. If the public holiday falls on a Friday then the Thursday is covered as well. The Regulation doesn't cover what happens if the public holiday falls on a Wednesday, which can happen with holidays like Anzac Day and Australia Day.
Over Christmas the long weekend looks more like a week and a half, but this is also spelt out in the legislation and a definition for Wednesday is included for Christmas.
Why does it matter?
There are separate penalty provisions for long weekends. Schedule 1 of the Regulation has a separate column with different penalties for certain offences on a long weekend.
For instance ordinarily travelling at 70km/h outside of St Dominics College on the Northern Road in Penrith would be a 6 demerit point offence during the designated school times/days/zones, but on a double demerit point school day it is a 12 point offence.
Mobile phone offences for fully licensed drivers are now ten (10) points on a long weekend, put your mobile phone in the boot or buy a proper mounting device now.
Speeding offences, seatbelt offences, motorbike helmet offences and mobile phone offences are caught by this double demerit point legislation.
When is the next long weekend?
The RMS website is usually up to date, but not always. This list is good though because it also includes school days that fall inside of the ‘long weekend’ (or week).
