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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-09 Daily Xml
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DAYLIGHT SAVING

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:51): Sir, I believe that you just inferred that you are a rabbit, acting as a president. Is that what you were saying, sir? What I want to speak on today is a serious matter and it is to do with daylight saving. Whilst I acknowledge and accept that a lot of people, particularly in Adelaide, really enjoy daylight saving, the fact is that daylight saving affects both city and country people.

I acknowledge at the outset that both the Liberal and Labor parties support the concept of daylight saving, so as an Independent crossbench party, we do not have any influence on the fact that daylight saving is here for the foreseeable future at least. The point I raise in the house today (which I think a lot of my Liberal colleagues at least in this house would agree with) is that the extension of daylight saving is a real burden on country people. If you have a look at the—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: It used to be four months, not six.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: That's right. As the Hon. John Dawkins said, it used to be four months, not six, and I think this is where it has really got out of kilter. On the West Coast in particular, Family First is especially concerned about children travelling to school, considering the time they have to get up in the morning and their coming home from school in the afternoon when it is incredibly hot, and the fact that they do not have air-conditioned buses in a lot of school buses yet.

The extension of daylight saving not only affects the children who are so important but it has quite an impact on farming generally. If you take this year as an example, with harvest, a lot of the time farmers could not begin harvesting until 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If you have a breakdown, most of the service providers have knocked off at 5:30. Farmers then have to pay a call-out fee, or, in fact, are not able to get assistance until the next day. Obviously, at 5:30, we are just starting to reach the hottest part of the day which is when machinery is working at full capacity.

At the moment, it is virtually six o'clock in the morning—and it is only 9 February—before we see sunrise, and by the time this extended daylight saving finishes, it is nearly quarter to seven before you get proper daylight. That is an incredible burden on farmers and country people who have distances to travel, but particularly for those who are involved in intensive animal husbandry. The fact is that they are having to work in the dark, so to speak, until nearly quarter to seven in the morning. I just think that this has been done without enough consideration for all South Australians.

I acknowledge the fact that, for some people who can afford both the time off and the money to go to the Fringe and other festivals, it is good that daylight saving is extended, but I am disappointed to see that the government has not even debated the impost that it has on country people. There are a lot of community organisations that have made representation of their concerns not only to our party but also, I am sure, to other colleagues in this council and in another place, yet they do not seem to be listened to.

I cannot see the wisdom of continuing with these extended daylight saving hours. I believe that four months of daylight saving is a fair and reasonable compromise, and I will continue to call for the government—and, as we head towards the next election, the opposition—to revisit this extension of daylight saving in the interests of all South Australians.

They should be here to govern for all South Australians, from Mount Gambier through the Nullabor Plain and to the West Australian and Northern Territory borders, and not be focused on just the majority of people who happen to live in Adelaide and who often only work (and good for them) an eight-hour day, who have the time to enjoy daylight saving without the impost it puts on, and ramifications it holds for, our rural community.

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