On 2013-04-12 Russ Allbery wrote:
I'm increasingly of the opinion that the tz database should just use the most unambiguous abbreviations (AEST/AEDT) even if there isn't a clear consensus in general usage.
I am tempted to agree, particularly since (prompted by Rich Tibbett's proposed patch on github) I finally got around to surveying general usage and it appears that there is a working (though by no means universal) consensus in Australia to use abbreviations like "AEST" and "AEDT", and furthmore, we appear to have been mistaken in our assumptions about abbreviation usage in the past. Details are in the attached proposed patch, which I've pushed into the experimental tz version on github. I couldn't resist adding a quote about the daylight-saving preferences of "chuckleheaded Queenslanders and straw-chewing yokels from the West".