I should have worded it better but if you see all the debates in the newspaper letters pages or on the Perth News opinion pages you get reasoned arguments from those in favour and most of those against it have no real reason apart from "they are against" and "they don't like change". That's a backwards mentality.

But it's nothing to do with being English; I'm sure you would find people over there just as divided.. In summer in the UK we have plenty of light at both ends so the extra hour doesn't really matter then. But I hated it when they put the clocks back in Autumn.

I had a little debate about this with some people in Qld, and their main reasons for opposing it seemed to be that they don't like having the decision made for them, and they don't want routine disrupted. I find it a bit odd myself. I get up and go to work in the dark all winter and when daylight saving starts it's dark again for a few weeks, but I don't want to go out walking or to the beach at 6am so I don't care. I love sitting outside in the evenings with OH after work. It would be light here in summer even without DS, but I love light evenings and my stomach gets in knots when I think about coming home to an early dark in summer. Mind you, it's rarely 35 degrees. I may change my mind if we ever get there.

I actually thought it was already adopted in WA. Didn't realise it was still a trial.

Interesting you mention kids; I would have thought the evenings were the best time to enjoy with young kids. When we have kids I will definitely be disappointed if we dont have DLS. We used to live nextdoor to a young family in the UK and their 2 kids were playing outside every night after school until it got dark. In summer it was great because they could be out for 4 hours It was great to see; no chance of them being obese, video game addicts.

That extra hour in the evening to spend outdoors with the kids would be precious, much more valuable than it being light when they are eating their breakfast.
IMO anyway.

Exactly my thoughts. Its would also be better for business in WA but that doesn't seem to matter.

I'm with you on his one, the good thing is my Mrs. is pro. Why is this good? It means we don't have to bother voting in the referendum as or votes would cancel each other out.

I'd want it if I was still in Brisbane because it gets darker earlier than the west coast and the border thing with NSW being on a different time can be a pain in the backside. But when I was back in Perth for 8 months last year, the daylight savings was a pain, having come from Brisbane which was dark earlier, my kids couldn't grasp the concept of being bedtime when the sun was still high in the sky.

My kids are in bed at 8pm. They play after school but from 6 its dinner, showers, homework and bed. No time for anything else.

Voting is compulsory:

http://www.waec.wa.gov.au/


PS I've got to say, getting out of bed at 6.15 when it is still dark is bloody hard at the moment.

Jayzuz! I can just about understand compulsory voting at a general election but for daylight savings, for f***s sake! What a load of TOTAL HORSESHIT.

Yep, they can waste billions of dollars of tax-payer money without asking but can't decide on an extra hour without getting the opinion of nearly 2 million people. Incredible.

Given the Aussie dislike of having the decisions of others forced upon them it's not such a bad idea. However, even if everyone votes, those in the minority will grizzle until the cows wander in (be that late or early) .

Says a lot about the WA government really.

I really don't care either way, I just wish they would have the guts to just make a bl***y decision instead of passing the buck back onto the voters.

Yeah bloody democracy! What we need is a Robert Mugabe as premier.

The whole point of democratically electing a government is that they then make the decisions for the people who elected them, not to pick and choose and pass the buck on the decisions that are controversial or that they are too scared to make!!

The point I was trying to make (badly obviously) is that from previous referendums it is quite clear that it will be a close thing so what is the point of wasting taxpayers money on another one. Just make a bl**dy decision either way and be done with it once and for all.

I appreciate you need to vote for a party with a suite of policies that hang together rather than vote for individual policies otherwise everyone would vote for tax cuts and increased spending at the same time. Obviously you can't have both.

But I like the idea of letting the people decide on non-political issues like this.

As a committee member on the local residents association I know that a small group of us can actually change policy at city or even state level. But we don't always get the concensus from people who can't be bothered to get off their arses and come to one of our meetings once a month. So I like the idea of forcing people to play a part in their local community.