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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-24 Daily Xml
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Time Zones

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:26): Well spotted, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You can't get that past the Chair. The Chair is onto it.

Mr TRELOAR: We are all alert here. The arguments the government has put forward as reasons to consider a change in our time zone from the current universal time of +9½ hours are totally without evidence. For example, one argument put by the government is that a half hour time difference between South Australia and the Eastern States impacts our economy. We live in a technological age where commerce can be, and is, conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of the time difference. I have not seen any evidence that suggests our state's time zone is holding back our export economy, or indeed our domestic economy.

As to our social and cultural engagement with Australia and the world, South Australia needs to embrace its own social and cultural identity and not constantly look to the eastern seaboard as being the cultural heart of our nation. Again, the time zone has nothing to do with our culture.

It has been quite rightly pointed out that there will be groups in the community that are concerned about how a change would affect them. Those of us who live in the west of the state certainly fit into that category. With this announcement, as with previous attempts to change the state's time zone, people in the west have voiced their opposition to moving to Australian Eastern Standard Time for many reasons, and I will list just a few: children going to school in the dark and the associated real safety concerns of waiting for school buses in the dark next to poorly lit country roads; road users driving in the dark in the early morning when wildlife activity is at its peak; children going to bed when it is still daylight, making it difficult for parents to settle young ones, especially with the flow-on effect of tired children being less receptive to learning.

In fact, just today a country paediatrician raised concerns about the health impacts on children living out of kilter with the natural rhythms of life. There are also the social impacts on farming families, especially during harvest, with farmers' harvest periods based on the hours of daylight, therefore affecting something as simple as the family evening meal. The list goes on, and no doubt many people will make more points of interest in their submissions. Ultimately, the government has not indicated what its preference would be: a shift to Australian Eastern Standard Time or a shift closer to Western Australian time or some other option.

Our current Central Standard Time was brought about by the South Australian Standard Time Act 1898, with Greenwich Mean Time +9½ hours introduced in 1899. It is worth noting that there is an established international agreement on the calculation of time around the world, with consideration given to some very basic geography and mathematics. The premise of this convention is that the sun be directly overhead at 12 noon and that the time at any place be determined from its natural meridian. With this in mind, Central Standard Time would be calculated from longitude 135º east. South Australia currently uses longitude 145½º east, a line which runs through western Victoria. Eastern Standard Time is calculated from longitude 150º east, which is situated just west of Sydney.

If, for example, South Australia were to move to Eastern Standard Time, we would be calculating our time zone from a line 1,000 kilometres to the east of Adelaide. Even more bizarrely, should we move to Eastern Standard Time and incorporate daylight saving, we would be calculating our time from longitude 165º east, so far out in the Pacific that it is almost to New Zealand, a staggering 2,500 kilometres from Adelaide and, even more staggering, 3,000 kilometres from Ceduna. Have we become so far removed from the real world that reality TV takes priority? Sadly, it would seem so.

Many of my constituents have contacted me regarding time zones and their opposition to a shift to Australian Eastern Standard Time for the reasons outlined previously and, in fact, not a single person has shown support to me for a change to Eastern Standard Time. I have encouraged these people to make their submissions to the consultation process, and I trust that they will be given due consideration. The reality is that the people whose work, family and life would be most affected by any change are the people living in the west of the state. It would be foolish for any government to dismiss the concerns of these people. I look forward to continuing to listen to the views of my constituents on this issue and, indeed, I encourage them once again to make submissions to yoursay.sa.gov.au.

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