Daylight saving time in WA
Until this summer Western Australia and Queensland were the only states not to have daylight saving. Despite the concept being defeated previously at referenda, the WA Parliament voted last year for a three-year trial to be followed by another referendum.
I was initially ambivalent about daylight saving. In Victoria I wasn’t a great advocate for it, but nor was I bothered by it.
The issue we have as a family is that our young children go to bed at 8pm. They have trouble going to sleep at that time during daylight saving because it’s light when they go to bed.
My experience with daylight saving in Kalgoorlie has been negative beyond that one problem.
With the temperatures we’ve been experiencing this week in the 40s, it just doesn’t cool down to enjoy the evenings. In fact you’re hoping the sun will go down sooner so that it will become cooler.
Young Michael had soccer training this afternoon at 5pm, which without daylight saving would have been in the twilight. As it was, many of the boys, who were taking part in a high-performance program, suffered heat stress and had to leave the field.
If he hadn’t been at soccer he would have been delivering papers (the Goldfields Express). Without daylight saving I would have asked him to wait until 6pm when the sun was setting. I couldn’t ask him to wait until the daylight savings equivalent of 7pm because that’s his bath time, homework time, etc.
Perth readers might think these are trivial reasons to oppose daylight saving. They might say the greater good is better served by extending the clock one hour.
That’s twaddle. The main argument for daylight saving is a so-called lifestyle benefit. Clearly it isn’t a universal benefit for people living in inland regional areas.
And unless it is a benefit to the majority of people it should be scrapped. The only way to test if the majority are happy with it is through another referendum. Bring it on.
Update: I’ve started a forum topic here if anyone wants to discuss this issue.
These articles might be of interest:
The longer daylight savings goes the more I’m against it. The weather thankfully isn’t as hot now, but it’s dark until 6.30am and that’s extending every day.
The Kalgoorlie Miner received a great letter from Federal Liberal MP Barry Haase this week outlining the case against daylight saving. It was the editorial I’ve been planning to write!
Given the CCC issue though we’re flooded with letters and it probably won’t appear until next week. I’ll reprint extracts here after it’s been published.
I am strongly against daylight saving for WA. I have several main reasons why I don’t like it.
But most of all my main problem with daylight saving is the HEAVY HANDED WAY THAT IT IS BEING TRIALED. EVERYONE’S PERSONAL REASONS AS TO WHY THEY DON’T LIKE DLS IS NOT THE ISSUE. THE ISSUE IS THAT THE PEOPLE OF WA HAVE NOT BEEN TREATED WITH DUE RESPECT. WE ARE NOT SO STUPID AS TO NEED 3 TRIALS BEFORE MAKING UP OUR MIND. WE SHOULD HAVE EVEN BEEN GIVEN A CHOICE ABOUT TRIALING DLS. I AM REALLY SURPRISED AT THE WAY THE GOVT HAS FORCED DLS ON A LARGELY UNWILLING WA POPULATION. I DIDN’T THINK THAT’S HOW THINGS WORKED IN A DEMOCRACY. I AM VERY DISGUSTED WITH HOW THE PROCESS HAS GONE SO FAR.
i BELIEVE THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF WA DON’T WANT DLS AND I HOPE THEREFORE WE WILL FIND A WAY TO STRONGLY STAND AGAINST IT. I AM CONSIDERING FINDING A WAY TO BOYCOTT DLS NEXT YEAR.
There was a story today that Labor will allow a free vote for MPs in caucus on bringing forward the referendum. That suggests they’re softening in response to public pressure.
NB: My March 23 post is a better place to leave comments: http://gorey.com.au/archives/1704
Thanks. That’s encouraging to know. I just ask that they use right processes, not whatever means they can to push their own agenda.
hey im mikaela,
im doing a debate at school about daylight savings can some one plz tell me the negative situation for daylght savings!
thankyou heaps guys
miky
Reasons to dislike daylight saving:
WA summer afternoons are often long and hot. If we don’t get a sea breeze - and often we don’t, in Jan and Feb - it won’t cool off enough to sleep until midnight, real time. That’s 1 am DLS, and many people have to be up five or so hours later. They’ll really feel the loss of that coolest hour to sleep, the third day into a heat wave.
Children under 10 need to be in bed by 8.30 or so. It’s still light then on DLS. You can’t reset a child’s body clock like a watch. They go by sun time - so they, too, will lose sleep.
I’ll be coming home at 5 pm - crawling up the freeway. That’s really 4 pm. In Perth, that’s often the hottest part of a summer day, and I can tell you now that having a game of tennis or going to the beach will be the last thing on my mind. Of course I’ll run the aircon, but burning the extra petrol is not a good thing, in several ways. And if you’re on a bus, good luck to you. You’ll need it.
Energy WA says we use more power in the heat, because of aircon. 82% of WA homes now have it - but aircon is less efficient for small than for large buildings, so if we’re coming home an hour earlier by the sun, we’ll use more power. Again, not a good thing. The electricity grid barely copes, anyway. It has failed twice in two years. Do we want to increase the load on it? I don’t think so.
And then there’s solar-caused skin cancer. We already have the world’s highest rate. What effects will more time in the sun have? Maybe we’ll be less fat, but more likely to have a melanoma. Me, I’d rather be fat.
So no to daylight saving.
daylight savings sucks so much
hate it
Can someone please tell me the positives of DLS. I need the imformation for a school essay, please reply as soon as possible.
Thanks
Taylor