After a three year trial, on the 16th May 2009, Western Australia had its fourth referendum on Daylight Saving and once again the people voted 'no'. The 'yes' voters claimed their state was completely out of sync with the east coast, being two hours behind the financial hub of Sydney and Melbourne. The 'no' voters argued that their commercial heart was in South East Asia who are on the same time zone.
I was reading a local newspaper article by Editor Judith Treby before the referendum took place. She wrote:
"... during our hot summers, when I arrive home from work with temperatures still hovering around 30 degrees at 6pm, it is too hot to exercise, other than go for a swim. On hot nights I am unable to enjoy dinner at the usual time and seem to lose an hour a day, waiting for the weather to cool down enough to eat. This is when I find daylight saving a negative experience."
Western Australia joins the Northern Territory and Queensland who have also said no to daylight saving.
I would hardly say that Western Australia joins Queensland in saying no to daylight saving. W.A. have had 4 referendums in 34 years, all with the result of 'NO' - they obviously don't want it. DST is not favoured in regional areas throughout both of these large states, however, Queensland is very different to W.A. Queensland has only ever had 1 referendum on this issue and whilst the outcome was a no vote, that was over 17 years ago (interesting to note that was the same year as W.A.'s preceding referendum). The Perth metro area is in the west of the W.A, and that's the major reason why DST is only favoured by half the people in the city area. In Queensland, however, the metro area of the South East, encompasses 3 of the Australia's 10 largest cities, and is much further east of the regional and rural districts in the state. In the 1992 referendum, it was demonstrated that daylight saving was favoured in South East Queensland. 51 of the state's 89 electorates voted in favour of DST - all of which are in the SEQ. Recent Queensland Government research has indicated DST is still favoured by SEQ, but support has increased to about 70% of region's population. If a referendum was held in Queensland now, given the population increase that has occurred in SEQ over the last 17 years, there is no doubt DST would be adopted in Queensland.
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