Split time zones?
The debate on whether to introduce daylight saving in Queensland is raging again, with Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh using Twitter to gauge reaction to the issue last week. A frenzy of responses both for and against has ensued.
Queensland maintains Eastern Standard Time all year round, which causes much debate every year in the south-eastern corner of the state, and particularly on the Gold Coast which straddles the border with NSW.
However, much of Queensland is in the tropics where residents have no desire to change their clocks in order to increase the amount of daylight and hot sunlight in which they live. On the other hand some would prefer daylight savings to be introduced state-wide, to bring Queensland’s business hours into line with other states and ease flight scheduling processes.
A proposal for trialling a split time zone has been raised in which the south-eastern corner would take on daylight saving while the rest of Queensland would not. Members of parliament have been given until May 18th to accumulate feeback from their constituents. Member for Mackay (Tim Mulherin) and Member for Whitsunday (Jan Jarratt) both report that to date it appears their communities strongly oppose the two time-zones proposal.
It has been 18 years since Queenslanders voted against introducing Daylight Saving.
Queenslanders can have their say at www.thepremier.qld.gov.au.
