DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.

               

Daylight saving is the process of winding the clocks forward each summer with the idea of having an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day for people to enjoy. What it really does is ensure that school children leave school at the hottest part of the day and that office workers are coming home from work before the heat of the day starts to dissipate. It also means that many rural industries (especially the dairy industry) gets severely disrupted.

Daylight saving has always been a divisive issue in Western Australia. Historically every referendum held on the subject in W.A. has rejected the proposal but every few years the issue works its way back on to the political agenda.

From the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2008, W.A. was forced to adopt daylight saving as a 'trial' and then a vote was held to see if it remained in force or not. It was once again defeated.

In the long term it is likely that, whether we like it or not, W.A. will be forced to adopt daylight saving permanently simply because of the inconvenience it causes to businesses that deal with Victoria and New South Wales.

The first time daylight saving seems to have been used was in Germany during World War One. It was introduced in order to save power. It was introduced in Australia in 1917 for the same reason.

Following is a table showing what effect the various uses of daylight saving have on the times across Australia. The examples given show the various times based on a standard time in W.A. of 8am. States that do not use daylight saving show no change in their time.

Daylight saving causes more problems than it solves as Australia can go from 3 time zones to 5 during summer.

Become a supporter of this website for just $5 a month