Apr 05 2009
Will Western Australia Adopt Day Light Savings?
Well the daylight savings debate is alive and well in Western Australia. Like deregulated shop trading hours, daylight savings is a bit too radical for the conservatives of WA. The 3 year daylight savings trial finished last week - so now we have darkness at 6:30pm and dawn at around 6:30am. Fantastic if you love to jog in the mornings - but for the other 95% of the population a right pain in the butt.
Lets face it - Perth is not Australia’s most dynamic city: if you want sophistication, good food or culture head to Melbourne or Sydney - even Hobart and Adelaide do better than Perth on these measures. What Perth - does have is the spectacular Kings Park at the city located on the attractive Swan River - and the beaches - kilometers and kilometers of pristine, sandy, surf beaches. They are stunning, they don’t have nearly as many shark attacks as Sydney’s not as good cafe’s as Melbournes but the water is swimable for 6 months of the year and to my mind Perth has the best beachs in metropolitan Australia.
So what do the locals want to to? Stop day light saving - so that for all of March - when the sea is beautiful to swim in - it will dark too early for most people to take advantage. With daylight savings its still 30C at 4-5pm its warm, the sea is nice and its not dark - if you have daylight saving!
So Western Australians - do yourselves a favor and vote for daylight savings. Lets face it the “no” lobby is sounding pretty bloody lunatic by suggesting that there are more road deaths with daylight savings - like huh? it has to get dark at some time - surely its better not to be dark in the middle of rush hour? Of course the cows don’t like it - but most of them aren’t too smart and can’t read a clock - so the farming lobby can just but out of this debate and the rest of us hope that sanity.
Apparently builders lose money cause its too dark to work at 7am - well duh why not start work at 8am instead - the neighbours will thank you!
Unfortunately most people who moved here for the lifestyle don’t get a say - we are disenfranchised as non-citizens - so Aussies - get to the booth and vote for day light savings in WA!
4 Responses to “Will Western Australia Adopt Day Light Savings?”
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So much for Australia being a democratic country it’s starting to seem like a dictatorship with The FORCED trial of daylight savings in Western Australia.
You will find that most west aussies like to have their opinion count.
And a real fact mate is that it is not dark at 6.30 pm and most people like to get out and about in the morning when it is still cool and not stinking hot in the afternoon. Obviously you sit in a nice air conditioned office all day and don’t have to work in the blazing hot sun and sweltering heat in the middle of the day. So keep you office jockey bloody opinion to yourself.
Hmm - most countries just adopted daylight savings- its what you have a government for to make decisions not run referendums. I don’t know where you live but I can assure you in Perth its dark at 6:30 at the moment!
I work from home and don’t have air conditioning.
Daylight saving makes no difference to the fact that it gets hot in WA - that will happen at either 1 or 2pm regardless of daylight savings.
When I work outside - I choose to do it in the mornings - when its cool- it doesn’t really matter what time the clock says does it?
Most Western Australians don’t get their opinion counted cause the only people who can vote are Australians, permanent, legal residents are disenfranchised in Australia
I will vote NO NO NO , for the sleep pattern been disturbed twice a year , for the more immune systerm went to wrong side , for the big medical billing problems , for it did nothing saving istead of spending more !!!
Daylight Saving has come and gone,
regardless of whether you love it or loathe it, you have to vote on it come 16 May 2009.
As we turn our clocks back an hour from March 28th and adjust our body clocks yet again, reflect on what it would mean to have this inflicted on us year after year.
It is a significant, life changing issue for
people in the country. Its not because we are backward, or afraid of progress and change. Has anyone out there who thinks its the duck’s proverbials ever taken into account the other side of the issue. Seriously?
Our kids go to swimming lessons in February.
For them, no indoor heated pools protected from the cool. It’s outside in the cold , southern mornings (at what is really 8am); less time for the sun to come up and bring a bit of thermal heat.
And who has a solar hot water system, doing their bit for climate change? It irks me to have to turn on an electric booster in summer months if I want a hot shower at 7am (really 6am)! That extra hour of sunlight in the morning is all the difference between a grumpy start to the day or a blissful, waking shower.
And more “quality time” to spend with the family of an evening? Not here.
Farmers will keep going as long as there is light to get the crops in and the kids; who have to get up to catch the school bus at 7.30am (which still feels like 6.30am to a four year old) have had to go to bed before dad even gets home. (Thank goodness you spent Mr Rudd’s stimulus package on blockout blinds.)
Those of us who work to the clock and knock off that hour earlier can sit inside with the aircon going, burning fossil fuel , as there are too many Ross River Virus carrying mozzies flying around at dusk to even think about long walks in the bush or having a hit of cricket down the oval with the kids until the sun goes down.
And how about that great summer tradition of coming home at the end of a hot summers day and crack open a coldie? Well, with daylight saving, you have more to look forward to.
You can start drinking an hour earlier with more time to potter around and drink more… and longer…..Mmm. ,where are those health benefits?
Its not all bad. If you are lucky enough to get away to a coastal town , you can sit by the beach all day and spend that quality time with the family. At the end of the day when the sun goes down, you can look forward to heading off to grab a takeaway for dinner.
But wait. The chairs are up; takeaway shops close at 9pm. No chance of a Hawaiian pack now, its back to the beach house for mum to scrounge up some toasties….
Even those in the city who can enjoy the outdoor cinema season surely have reason to be disgruntled. Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable and “family friendly” if a feature film lasting around two hours could start earlier than 9pm?
All well and good to think up arguments like “it helps the economy and WA business who deal with the Eastern States”.
Umm… the East choose to put their clocks forward each year with no consideration to their WA counterparts and the effects it has on business relations; so why is it an issue West Aussie businesses have? Is it really all that difficult in this day and age? Come on.
Remember , the sun rises in the east, so they get the full benefit of the sunny, bright mornings long before we do. What’s good for them, is not necessarily good for us, that’s why we fall into different sides of the time zone lines after all!
While being bombarded with pro daylight savings advertising campaigns (I guess all that spending is good for the economy, but surely there is a more deserving cause?) we can sit quietly waiting for the masses to tick a box at whim, or put forward a logical argument and not let a couple of redundant politicians push the barrow to get their way in yet another referendum on the issue.
Am I a lonely voice, or do others have similar valid reasons to bring into the debate?