About nine million Australians are spending the day enjoying the dregs of summer while the rest endure another Monday morning in the office.

Victorians and Tasmanians are celebrating the Labour Day public holiday, also known as Eight Hours Day in the southern-most state, South Australians have been given a day off to watch the horse racing spectacle that is the Adelaide Cup and Canberrans are commemorating the naming of the capital.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined the ACT celebrations early Monday morning when he, fiancee Jodie Haydon and the nation’s first dog, cavoodle Toto, watched a rainbow of hot air balloons float over Lake Burley-Griffin at sunrise in the company of territory chief minister Andrew Barr.

“It was just stunning watching the balloons,” he later told ABC radio.

“What an amazing setting for Canberra.”

Hot air balloons are expected to rise over Canberra every morning until next Monday, if conditions allow.

Mr Albanese spent the weekend in Canberra with his son Nathan and took to the airwaves to defend the much-maligned national capital. 

“I think people who don’t come here and spend time don’t quite get that Canberra has so much to offer,” he said.

“There is a tendency from some when they’re trying to essentially criticise the public sector, what they do is they use Canberra as a euphemism for that.

“(But) it has just so much to offer.”

The prime minister waxed lyrical about the city’s institutions including the National Gallery and Questacon, and said he was excited about watching the Raiders play his beloved Rabbitohs in northern Canberra in June.

He also praised the capital’s walks and hikes but said he couldn’t stay long as he would be heading to Launceston as Tasmania gears up for a state election before heading to Katherine and Darwin in the Northern Territory, flying to Melbourne on Thursday and arriving in Adelaide on Friday.

“It’s a busy existence,” he said

“But having Canberra as the base of the prime minister is a huge bonus.”