Daylight saving Queensland: Renewed calls for 2021 trial

With daylight saving time ending, advocates are calling for a trial of the controversial program in Queensland next summer. VOTE IN OUR POLL.

There is a fresh push for daylight saving to return to Queensland for the first time in 30 years next summer.

With clocks in other states winding back an hour on Sunday, Queensland will again be on the same time as the rest of the eastern seaboard until October.

However, a leading daylight saving advocate has called for a new trial of the program to coincide with Queensland’s first four-year government.

Dr Thomas Sigler is a leading advocate for daylight saving in Queensland. Picture: Supplied

Doctor Thomas Sigler, a senior lecturer in human geography at the University of Queensland and a key figure in the Daylight Saving For South-East Queensland advocacy group, said the political sting could be taken out of the debate if the government was prepared to trial the initiative again for the first time since the 1992 referendum.

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He called for another three-year trial, similar to the one which stretched from 1989-1992 ahead of the unsuccessful referendum.

“The first year of a four-year term is the perfect time for another three-year trial because it would be finished before it became a political issue heading into an election,” Dr Sigler said.

“It is insane that we are not aligned with Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne for half the year and it would be crazy not to look at this seriously now.

“The coronavirus pandemic has had such a massive impact on the economy, particular tourism and hospitality, and they are precisely the industries that would benefit from daylight saving.”

Research has estimated Queensland’s steadfast refusal to adopt daylight savings costs the state’s economy about $4 billion a year.

Dr Sigler, who is working on a fresh daylight saving report due to be completed mid-year, said a single referendum held almost three decades ago should not be the end of the discussion.

“No one under the age of 46 has had a chance to vote on this issue – that’s millions of people,” he said.

“We’ve seen an enormous number of polls on this issue and it’s consistently in the range of 60 per cent of people being in favour of daylight saving.

“It doesn’t matter if you are left or right, the only thing that seems to matter is how far north or west you are, but the fact is that most Queenslanders live in the southeast corner where roughly 80 per cent of people want it.”

However, a spokesman for Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said daylight saving was not on the radar.

“The Premier is on the record that she acknowledges many people have strong views about the matter but she wants to unite Queensland, not divide Queensland,” he said.