Opinion: It’s time for another Daylight Saving trial in Queensland

SOME 88 per cent of us want a new daylight savings trial. The farmers might not fancy an earlier start, but good government acts in the best interests of the majority, withstanding backlash from influential minorities. HAVE YOUR SAY

• Daylight saving Queensland: New push for trial

IF Brisbane residents want more daylight, they should get out of bed earlier. Simple. Stupid, more like it.

Katter Australian Party MP for Mt Isa Robbie Katter is kidding if he thinks this is the answer.

What the bulk of Queenslanders, who choose to live in the southeast, and larger regional cities like Townsville and Cairns want is the chance to give daylight saving a go.

With 88 per cent of us in favour a trial, according to a new survey, why the resistance?

The last time Queensland trialled winding the clocks forward an hour for six months each October was 1992.

A subsequent referendum was narrowly defeated, yet every year since petitions have been put to Parliament to bring us in line with our southern counterparts of NSW and Victoria.

Mr Katter might not like it, but it is high time to try it again.

Queensland is a different place to what it was when the late Wayne Goss was re-elected as premier and Billy Ray Cyrus topped the ARIA charts with Achy Breaky Heart.

The last time we had a daylight saving trial this guy was leading the charts.

Our cities have swelled, particularly in the south-east.

Back in 1992-93 Brisbane recorded the highest annual growth rate of any Australian capital, at 2.5 per cent, and it has consistently exceeded the national average, thanks predominantly to migration. People want to live here.

Today, more than 2.49 million call Brisbane home, which is more than half of the state’s 4.84 million residents.

The capital is also where the jobs are.

While farming remains important to our economy and our ethos, the reality is that we’ve hopped off the sheep’s back long ago. We’ve toppled off the mining peak too, and are concentrating our endeavours in key commercial centres.

The lion’s share of jobs today are in healthcare (12.9 per cent), followed by retail trade (10.8 per cent). Mining has fallen to 14th place (2.7 per cent), with agriculture, forestry and fishing in 15th (2.5 per cent), according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Hard-working farmers might not fancy an earlier start, granted, but good government acts in the best interests of the majority, withstanding backlash from influential minorities.

Mr Katter’s suggestion should also be taken in the context of his electorate in the state’s north-west.

Today, first morning light in Mt Isa was 5.46am. In Brisbane, it was 4.37am. That’s more than one hour’s difference, yet city dwellers are meant to suck it up?

In Townsville, where the sun peeped through at 5.20am today, deputy mayor Les Walker said daylight saving would be “a cost saver for families with a couple of children”, by way of lower energy bills.

The idea also has merit for the business sector, which could deal with Sydney and Melbourne in real time.

I am not saying that we MUST introduce daylight saving – that is a decision for all Queenslanders to make via a referendum – but to deny people the opportunity to trial it just keeps everyone in the dark.