Daylight saving Qld: Politicians ignore the issue at their peril

No Queenslander under 50 has had their say on daylight saving, yet the state’s population overwhelmingly wants it, writes Dr Thomas Sigler, meaning politicians who avoid the issue may be doing so at their own peril.

With the Queensland election fast approaching there are many contentious issues, but daylight saving will not be one of them. Nonetheless, Queenslanders overwhelmingly want daylight saving, and politicians who avoid the issue may be doing so at their own peril.

To be sure, I recently deployed Australia’s first comprehensive survey on daylight saving perspectives. I found that 80 per cent of respondents nationwide favour daylight saving, including 66 per cent of Queenslanders.

My survey showed that daylight saving supporters are not confined to a single party, with backing from both Greens and LNP voters above 70 per cent in Queensland, and support among Labor voters not too far behind. Almost every demographic group in Queensland supports daylight saving when broken down by age, gender, income, household status, and occupation.

Support is far higher in the state’s south and east than north and west. Women are also slightly more inclined than men are to support daylight saving. Respondents on higher incomes are more likely to support daylight saving, as are more-educated respondents. Those employed are much more likely to support daylight saving than retirees or others not in the labour force.

Associate Professor Thomas Sigler from the University of Queensland.

The sun rises at 5:20am today in Brisbane, with civil twilight – when it starts to get light – just before 5am. My survey results indicate that the average Queenslander wakes up at 6:05 on weekdays and about 6:54 on weekends – two hours after daylight has first started to fade your curtains.

The sun sets at 5:51pm in Brisbane today. If you work a standard 9-5, you would enjoy nearly three hours of after-work daylight in Adelaide (where daylight saving is observed), but barely one hour in most of Queensland.

The 1992 referendum was so long ago that no one under the age of 50 has had a say. In another referendum, I am confident voters would support daylight saving.

If voters in certain parts of the state are unsupportive, there is no reason why western Queensland should have to follow the southeast.

With nearly two-thirds of the state in favour, I’d argue that political candidates continue to ignore the issue at their own peril.

Thomas Sigler is an associate professor of geography with The University of Queensland

Originally published as Daylight saving Qld: Politicians ignore the issue at their peril