DAYLIGHT SAVING DEFEAT MAKES NO SENSE
WITH electricity costs escalating by $750 and other taxes rising in this year’s Federal and State Budgets, doesn’t it make sense to vote for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Western Australia?
Personally, I think it is. Although the reason may have been emphasised before about spending the DST hour after work to enjoy quality time with families in outdoor activities (even under the shade of a tree for those who do not want to be exposed to the sun), it is worth looking at how we would save one-hour of the electricity costs in a day during the summer months.
Calculate the amount of electricity we use -- watching some uninteresting programs on the television at that hour, having air-conditioners, coolers or fans on in the house and, perhaps, for some, their seemingly unstoppable habit of indulging in titbits while watching the silly box -- into dollars and cents and you will find it is quite a good saving.
In fact, the biggest saving will come from the early close up of factories, offices and retail stores, most of which use more electricity to operate machinery and brighter lights to operate their business.
Implementation of DST in these areas and the reduction in energy usage is good for the environment, too.
As DST is a "hot-potato" political issue in Western Australia due to strong oppositions, especially from farmers and grazers in rural areas, there is no official research done in the state to support its merit or otherwise.
However, according to Ryan Kellog and Hendrik Wolff of the University of California in Berkeley, some studies carried out by researchers in the US have estimated that DST could cut electricity demands from 0.6% to 3.5%. As a result, more countries are turning to daylight saving.
But Kellog and Wolff challenged this conclusion saying that their own study in Victoria and South Australia in September and October of 2000, based on detailed data of half-hourly electricity consumption prices, showed DST “failed to conserve electricity”.
To me, the conclusion of these two Americans is not applicable to Western Australia because, firstly, the state has greater sun light during the two-month period than in Victoria and South Australia where it is usually cool at that time of the year. Therefore, the electricity consumption of the two states may not change.
Secondly, taking the statistics of usage of one year cannot be generalised for the whole of Australia because of its vast territory and the fact that the weather conditions of that particular year could be much cooler or warmer than usual.
These anomalies should be taken into consideration when arguing for or against DST in Western Australia.
The long and chequered history of the controversy over DST has continued since it was first implemented in Australia in 1917 by the Federal Government, which used its wartime powers to save energy.
It was abandoned in the same year after strong protests from the public. It was not until 1967 when the country’s smallest state Tasmania implemented DST because of its merit in saving electricity.
Each state then had to decide whether it wanted DST during the summer months. Some of the states conducted their own referendum to test the wishes of the people.
In Western Australia, today’s referendum was the fourth on DST in 33 years. The first three in 1975, 1984 and 1992 resulted in no majority by just over 50% of the votes.
The outcome in each referendum was, therefore, not decisive; hence, in 2006, the Carpenter Labour Government decided to have DST on a three-year trial with a referendum at the end of it.
Unfortunately, it was officially announced at 9.30 tonight that West Australians had rejected DST by 55% after 70% of the votes had been counted. They have decided against change to move with the times.
This means that they have also brushed aside the notion that, in the national interest, WA should have DST to keep in line with the already disavantage of being two hours behind the Eastern States where the main business activities are.
The reality now is that workers in WA will go to work in the morning during the summer months while their counterparts in the Eastern States are beginning to have their lunch break. And when the WA workers go for lunch, their counterparts in the Eastern States are knocking off their work for the day.
This is not an ideal situation to do business in this country, especially when most of the major suppliers are in the Eastern States.
But the opponents of DST say that businesses have modern technology, such as Internet and mobile phones, to place their orders at any time during the 24-hour day.
It is debatable whether it is unnecessary for many firms in WA to make direct contact with the major suppliers.
The opponents also claim that the “unique” lifestyle in Western Australia will slowly be eroded if DST is implemented permanently during the summer months.
What they mean by uniqueness in the state’s lifestyle is not clear.
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