The clocks go forward tonight for daylight saving in three states and the ACT. Tasmania began daylight saving several weeks ago.
Large numbers of Australians are unhappy, particularly in south-east Queensland and Perth where they would like daylight saving and do not have it and in large parts of western NSW where it is not wanted. Australian Governments have still got it right. They are attempting to defy the laws of nature with their lines on a map that mark state boundaries. But time stands still for no state premier.
The essential troubles are size and politics. Australia straddles 40 degrees of longitude. With a 24 hour day, that represents 2 hours and 40 minutes. Western Australian and Queensland each are more than 15 degrees of longitude wide at their widest, which represents one 24th of the globe or one hour. It means that the sun rises and sets and hour earlier (or later) in one part of the state than it does in another if the state has a uniform time zone. Vertically, too, Australia’s great distance defies uniformity of time. In the tropical north sunrise and sunset are about 12 hours apart all year; in Tasmania sunrise and sunset are about eight hours apart in winter and 16 hours apart in summer.
But none of these facts alter the stubbornness of our state premiers. They demand the same time zone throughout each of their states, irrespective of the place of the sun in the sky. They are worse than the Queen of Hearts in Alice; at least she only wanted words to bend to her will; not the sun.
The vast majority of Australians are dissatisfied with present arrangements which are dictated by premiers’ egos and party politics.
The further one goes north or west in a state the more daylight saving is detested. And rightly so. The further south and east and the more urban a population the more it wants daylight saving.
The answer is obvious, and if the state premiers cannot do it, the Federal Parliament should, just as the US Congress has.
Times should be dictated by geography and nature, not politics. We should have two time zones, one with daylight saving one without. The zones would be bounded in the west from, say, Geraldton to Esperance and in the south-east from, say, a line from Port Augusta to Griffith and north to Bundaberg. With these boundaries all the major capitals would have daylight saving (so broadcast, airline and other services would have the same time regime throughout the year for the bulk of the population). And the border between daylight saving and non-daylight saving would be way out in the bush where there are few transactions … not between Sydney and Brisbane where there are many.
Once that applied, there would not have to be the silly compromises over when daylight saving starts and finishes. At present because of silly political compromises and the timing of various festivals daylight saving begins too late, though it ends about right. The urban, easterly and southerly parts could have daylight saving for six months from the beginning of October to the end of March and the rural, westerly and northerly parts, who detest daylight saving, could get their wish and have none.