Queensland daylight saving's best chance

GoldCoast.com.au

DAYLIGHT saving campaigners are in the best position ever to win a referendum to bring in a split time zone to southeast Queensland.

With an entire generation coming of age and 10 years of phenomenal interstate migration, political analyst and Griffith University School of Humanities senior lecturer Dr Paul Williams yesterday said a professional, logical campaign just had to convince enough voters in the north to support it.

Premier Anna Bligh has given her MPs a month to consult with their constituents before the Government decides whether to support independent MP Peter Wellington's private member's bill calling for a referendum on a split time zone.

"Queensland is in the best placed position now than ever before," he said. "If you get enough interest groups to campaign, so it doesn't just look like a Labor proposal, I think it has got a very good chance of getting up for a split time zone.

"If it is sold as an economic issue, it has a very good chance."

Although a referendum in WA last year rejected daylight saving after a three-year trial, Queensland was different because it is home to former Victorian and NSW residents who were used to it.

In the 18 years since the last referendum, not only has a generation come of age but the fabric of Queensland had been dramatically changed by interstate migration.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland, which Labor often accuses of being a conservative mouthpiece, has refused to get involved in the campaign, saying the issue was predominantly about lifestyle and not economics or jobs.

But the Gold Coast Combined Chamber of Commerce disagrees and will campaign for a referendum to be held.

The Gold Coast business community has campaigned for daylight saving for the past decade, once threatening to adopt NSW time during summer.

President Bob Janssen said a trial would show north Queensland the inconvenience the Gold Coast now had to suffer.

"Once they experience a year of the differentiation in time they will then appreciate what we have had to put up with ever since daylight saving was introduced," he said.