Qld daylight saving ‘border bubble’ flagged

The introduction of a Covid-19-style “border bubble” time zone has been flagged as Queenslanders brace for daylight saving confusion. VOTE IN THE POLL

A Gold Coast surf club boss has called for the introduction of a Covid-19-style “border bubble” time zone as Queenslanders brace for daylight saving confusion this weekend.

Queensland gets plunged into the annual daylight saving time warp at 2am on Sunday when the southern states turn their clocks forward an hour.

With successive Queensland governments stubbornly refusing to fall into line with NSW and Victoria, the time difference has been a bane for many people living north of the Tweed for decades – especially those in the southeast who have to cross the border daily for work, school and medical appointments.

Coolangatta Surf Club manager Steve Edgar said while daylight saving did not cause as many problems as it used to, he’d still “rather not” have the confusion and inconvenience.

“I’d love to see a border bubble stretching up from NSW to the Gold Coast, like we had during Covid, but operating as a daylight saving time zone,” he said.

“It’s a tourist area with a lot of visitors from the southern states so I think it’d be really good.”

A border bubble operated at the height of the pandemic, allowing Gold Coast and Tweed residents to crisscross the state line with relative freedom.

Mr Edgar said many Tweed businesses, including Twin Towns Services Club, operated on Queensland time during daylight saving because of the large number of Queensland patrons.

Marion Charlton, chief operating officer of Gold Coast Airport, which straddles the border at Coolangatta and Tweed Heads, said having daylight saving in Queensland “would certainly make life easier”.

“Because the airport is half in Queensland and half in NSW, you can walk from one end of our terminal to the other and your watch changes time by an hour,” she said.

“It’s something that can be confusing for passengers and also for our team. About a third of our passengers come from northern NSW.”

Ms Charlton said having longer evenings would also be better for tourism.

Daylight saving remains a contentious issue in Queensland.

Acting Gold Coast Mayor Donna Gates said it had been 30 years since the last referendum on daylight saving in Queensland.

“That’s a long time … put it to the people (again), as global commerce and the way businesses transact has changed significantly in that time,” she said.

“My personal view is that the eastern seaboard should share a common time zone. I urge the State Government to review daylight saving, through a referendum.”

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has previously called for a return of DST ahead of the 2032 Olympics.

A University of Queensland study last year found more than 60 per cent of Queenslanders were in favour of daylight saving.

This was mirrored in a couriermail.com.au

survey which found 64 per cent of more than 10,000 readers supported the introduction of daylight saving when Queensland took over control of Norfolk Island from NSW earlier this year.

A petition of more than 18,000 signatures supporting daylight saving was presented to state parliament late last year by advocacy group Daylight Saving For South East Queensland.

But Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman earlier this year ruled out the introduction of daylight saving, saying her government believes there were “other priorities facing Queenslanders”, including the pandemic recovery.