Small numbers add up to change in date for Labour Day Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has cited the views of 2 per cent of a survey's respondents as a majority opinion. An opinion held by only 2 per cent of the population is not normally enough to bring about much change but in Queensland it has apparently been enough to change the Labour Day holiday. The state government has been accused of fudging figures to justify moving Labour Day to October, by interpreting 2 per cent support in a survey as a majority opinion. In an April 26 media release reminding Queenslanders there would be no traditional holiday this May, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie cited a 2011 review of the Holiday Act 1983, which had found "most people were in favour of Labour Day being moved to the latter part of the year instead of the Queen's Birthday public holiday." The statement also said "95 per cent of [survey] respondents supported the move of a public holiday to the second half of the year." Fairfax Media obtained the survey data, which showed 85.4 per cent of respondents were in favour of moving the Queen's Birthday to October. Queensland University of Technology senior statistics lecturer James McGree said there was no evidence, based on the data, to suggest Queenslanders preferred Labour Day to be moved rather than the Queen's Birthday. The study, which surveyed 24,505 people, allowed respondents to provide text feedback in addition to answering the yes/no questions. Only 1038 chose to do so, with 510 indicating their support for Labour Day to be moved instead of the Queen's Birthday, the movement of which was supported by 414 respondents. Dr McGree said that meant Mr Bleijie had used the opinion of 2 per cent of the survey respondents to assert that "most people" were in favour of moving Labour Day. "They never actually asked the question directly about which holiday [the respondents] wanted moved, whether it be the Queen's Birthday or Labour Day," he said. The question is: 'Do you agree with moving the Queen's Birthday public holiday from June to the second half of the year?' There's no option to say, 'No, we prefer to move Labour Day', for example ... I certainly can't see any huge preference between the two holidays [based on the data]. Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams said the state government had "misused the data to tell a lie." "That wasn't the result of the survey," he said. Only a small proportion of people - a very minute proportion - indicated support for [moving Labour Day]. They're going over the old data and misusing it to justify their own position. Mr Battams said Labour Day had been held on the first weekend in May for 112 years. The Queen's Birthday holiday isn't even held on the Queen's birthday. Labour Day has a long tradition in Queensland, dating back to 1891. A spokeswoman for Mr Bleijie said the Attorney-General was not available for interview. But in a written statement, he once again used the survey - and an unscientific online newspaper poll - to justify the move. "The previous government's survey asked whether or not people supported moving a public holiday to the second half of the year and nominated the Queen's Birthday," he said. Of those who responded to that question, 1038 people also provided comment and a majority of those suggested Labour Day should be moved, rather than Queen's Birthday. According to the data provided to Fairfax Media, 510 of those 1038 supported the Labour Day move. "In addition, 53 submissions and letters were received about the rearrangement of public holidays," Mr Bleijie said. The majority of these submissions supported moving Labour Day as opposed to Queen's Birthday. Mr Bleijie said moving Labour Day to October, rather than the Queen's birthday, achieved better uniformity with other states. "[It also] provided a more even spread of public holidays for Queensland workers and reinstated the June public holiday, which provides a boost to Queensland's tourism industry," he said. Poll: Which public holiday would you prefer to see moved to the second half of the year? Labour Day Queen's Birthday Neither Other (comment below) Total votes: 308. Poll closes in 2 days.