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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-27 Daily Xml
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TIME ZONE

Mrs PENFOLD (Flinders) (15:49): Labor's rhetoric under Premier Rann tries to convince South Australians that we are doing well and have a place on the world stage. If that rhetoric had any substance, the government would revert to true central standard time for this state. Our state should have a bit of state pride, and a one hour time difference between the Eastern States and Western Australia instead of the current half-hour anomaly. The further extension to daylight saving has brought out more supporters who are asking for the change in a large measure to reduce the disadvantages of the longer daylight saving fiasco. The Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association is one of the latest in a long line of individuals and groups asking for the change, with some interesting facts on the manipulation of survey results, so that it supposedly supports the extension of daylight saving. The Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association Executive Officer, Diane Laube, wrote to the Minister for Industrial Relations, the Hon. Paul Caica, stating:

After hearing the discussion (on radio), I was most intrigued to see the survey results posted on the SafeWork SA website claiming support for the daylight saving extension. The applied 'doctoring' of the figures provided great mirth at our meetings where members were astounded to see that you had applied a multiplier to the self-initiated vote to conclude that 54 per cent of the state was in favour of the extension.

The raw vote resulted in 1,292 people indicating they were NOT in favour of the extension, and 698 voting for. This was then adjusted according to the proportion of voters in the metropolitan area (74 per cent) so a statistical adjustment applied to arrive at the 54 per cent. Even allowing for this dubious statistical tampering, a slim majority seems to suggest a great deal of dissatisfaction. Indeed, previous figures supporting daylight saving have been claimed to be resounding. No longer does this seem to be the case.

Talkback radio confirmed Ms Laube's comments. She states:

During the April 2009 extension period, a number of talkback sessions were offered in metro Adelaide with my personal experience mostly with AM station 891. Never before have I heard the volume of dissatisfaction from metropolitan callers, with most suggesting inconvenience getting to work...A number of callers also raised the issue of our time zone being skewed a half an hour... suggesting that to revert to our 'solar' time would alleviate some of the issues.

Ms Laube commented on my attempts in 2005 to revert the state to true universal time, which resulted in resounding support for the proposition. Ms Laube states:

...anecdotal suggestions that extended daylight saving period is not well received by metropolitan voters and some adding their voices to call to return us to GMT +9 hours. Everyone is aware that this would lessen the negative impacts of that extended period.

South Australia is the only place in the world where the time line does not go through the geographical area to which it relates. There are three or four other half-hour time zones in the world, but in every instance the time line goes through the geographical region to which it relates. Because South Australia's time line is out of the state, Adelaide is not put on some world maps. Therefore, South Australia loses out on world recognition as a state and as a place to do business. Computers do not, I understand, compute half-hour time zones, and, according to some in the tourism industry, that results in South Australia being completely ignored as a separate region of Australia.

The half-hour time zone also presents a safety issue for aviation and sea rescue. Some pilots wear two watches so that they are sure of giving the correct time when reporting. Mayday alerts from boats and shipping can be picked up elsewhere in the world and transferred to Australia where the alert may not have been heard, which has happened. When transferring information, the position of the boat in distress can be given incorrectly, because, if using the South Australian time line, it could be put near Tasmania instead of South Australia. This is a critical safety issue for Port Lincoln, which hosts the biggest tonnage of fishing boats in Australia.

The fact that South Australia is on a different time lines in the Eastern States is no impediment to business, contrary to what Mr Vaughan of Business SA tries to put forward, but the half-hour difference is and should be increased to a full hour.

The United States of America has five time zones across an area about the same size as Australia. Not all these zones follow state boundaries; that is, some states have two time zones. It is time South Australia caught up with the rest of the world and changed to true central standard time with, at most, three months of daylight saving. Mr Speaker, I will read a poem entitled 'At the End of the Day':

Back when the nation was in its prime

They invented a thing called 'Standard Time'

The clocks had been dithering, all of a bother

And now they finally agreed with each other.


But such are the ways of human nature

—And this was not lost on those men of stature

Who decide what we earn and how we spend—

That stability is a dangerous trend.


Seize the day!' they boomed. 'And the daylight, too!

Rule the sun before it rules you!

Time's a commodity to be bought and sold!

Control the clocks and you won't grow old!'

Time expired.

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