It seems that there are still residents in New South Wales who after fifty-three years of continuous Summer daylight saving time across the state have difficulty accepting this 183-184 day period (approx. 26 weeks) when the position of 'big hand & little hand' are changed on the clock face. So a petition with 734 signatures was presented to the New South Wales Parliament in October 2024.
NOTE: NSW Daylight Saving Time commences at 2am AEST on the first Sunday in October when the clocks are moved forward by one hour and moved back at 3am AEDT on the first Sunday in April. Daylight saving in NSW is currently synchronised with Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
Those 734 petitioners wanted to see Summer daylight saving in New South Wales reduced to a period from the first Sunday in November to the first Sunday in March, thus introducing a new second Summer daylight saving time zone to the mix.
The NSW Attorney-General who administers the Standard Time Act 1987 sent a very polite letter in response to the petition stating "There are currently no plans to make legislative changes to the provisions relating to
Australian Eastern Daylight Time in New South Wales."
Because, let's face it, times have changed since 1975 when the United Farmers’ and Wool-Growers Association managed to organise a petition of over40,000 signatures, presented this to the New South Wales Parliament and a state referendum followed in May 1976.
So here the matter stands, until either the next group of people hankering for a return to a New South Wales of the 1960s decide to organise another petition or the growing global climate crisis makes any attempt at daylight saving futile.
As the issue was reported for local consumption...
The Northern Star online/Daily Telegraph, 10 January 2025, excerpts:
NSW Government shoots down calls for changes to daylight savings after petition tops 700 signatures
The NSW Government has shot down calls for an overhaul of daylight savings after hundreds of residents signed a petition calling for changes to the “draconian” system.
Farmers were among more than 700 people who signed a petition to state parliament, calling for daylight savings to be scaled back from six months to four over concerns the current state of affairs was negatively impacting regional communities in the hottest part of the year.
The NSW Farmers Association backed the overhaul, saying the conditions in Sydney could be very different to those people experienced in regional areas of the state.
NSW Farmers Association president Xavier Martin said while daylight savings may be popular in coastal cities, where people could enjoy outdoor activities and swim after work, the sweltering summer conditions meant children were going to school on rural roads when it was dark and returning home in the hottest parts of the day.
“Shortening the daylight savings period, but not ending it completely, would make a real difference for our rural communities around the state,” he said.
“During the autumn daylight savings period, farmers are still forced to work for longer periods in the dark, while rural children are returning home on long bus rides in the hottest part of the day.
“Australia’s daylight savings period has been greatly extended over time since its introduction in 1971, and we believe shortening this period by one month either side would be very beneficial for rural Australians.”
But NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said there were no plans to change the current six-month daylight savings periods, noting the current terms were synchronised with Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.
“Any changes to the length of the daylight saving period would require agreement with other jurisdictions in order to avoid a range of cross-jurisdictional issues,” he said in a statement responding to the petition.
“Any change would require legislative change (and) there are currently no plans to make legislative changes to the provisions relating to Australian Eastern Daylight Time in NSW.”
Daylight savings, initially used in Australia as a temporary measure to reduce fuel consumption during both world wars, was introduced in NSW on a permanent basis in 1971...
The NSW Farmers Association said the difference in hours could impact on communities along the border of Queensland and NSW border, where people had to switch time zones when leaving one state and entering the other....
A total of 734 people signed the petition to NSW Parliament.
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