I meant to post this a week ago but time escaped me. Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT have agreed to extend daylight saving to fall in line with Tasmania. It will start on the first Sunday in October and finish on the first Sunday in April.

That poses an interesting problem for the Western Australian Government. Daylight saving is largely resented here, especially in February and March when it’s too hot to enjoy the extra daylight and many people just want the sun to go down.

One of the reasons given for a three-year trial in WA was to be in line with the eastern states, as written here on the government’s propaganda site:

It also brings WA into line with the majority of other Australian states and territories that have daylight saving. This means WA businesses will no longer be separated from their eastern states counterparts by an additional hour during summer.

That is obviously untrue now unless WA extends daylight saving for the extra four weeks.

A Kalgoorlie Miner reporter asked Premier Alan Carpenter about this when he visited the town recently, and he said the timeframe won’t be extended; that WA will stick with the designated dates.

He said this has been a difficult issue for the politicians. All the more reason, I would have thought, to bring forward the referendum.