Queensland Premier Anna Bligh rules out introducing daylight saving; overruled poll shows 60pc of Qld residents want to join same time zone as NSW and Victoria

According to Mark Ludlow in The Australian Financial Review, (2/10/2007, p. 7), Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday ruled out introducing daylight saving. She overruled a government-commissioned poll that showed almost 60 per cent of Queensland residents wanted to join the same time zone as NSW and Victoria.

Bligh says no way: Bligh said she was “standing up for the minority” — 30 per cent — of people who did not want daylight saving (10 per cent of those surveyed did not care either way). She ruled out either a trial or a referendum on the issue.

Business not amused: The move will anger business, which says it costs millions of dollars each year, as well as residents on the Queensland — NSW border who have to operate in two time zones.

Bligh sop to regional voters: It was an obvious concession to rural and regional Queensland, which Bligh must win over before she faces the polls in 2009. “In my view, we are geographically prevented, effectively, from daylight saving,” she said. “You cannot implement it in one part of the state without seriously disadvantaging another part of the state and I’m not going to take Queensland down that path”.

Qld daylight saving wrangle history: Supporters of daylight saving narrowly lost a 1992 referendum, but the issue has gained momentum, especially in the south-east where the majority of population growth has occurred in the past 15 years. The ACNielsen poll of 1000 residents and 600 businesses found 59 per cent support for daylight saving. In the south-east it was 69 percent and in the rest of the state 36 per cent.

The Australian Financial Review, 2/10/2007, p. 7