South Australia may move clocks 30 minutes
The South Australian government is considering changing their clocks by 30 minutes. The government would prefer advancing clocks by 30 minutes to match the time on the east coast. The public is split. Much of the resistance is coming from the west part of the state, where locals worry about their children leaving for school in the dark, and the government is prepared to consider changing school hours to address this. Another possibility is retarding clocks by 30 minutes; this would move closer to solar time, and would align better with Asia. This change would probably affect Broken Hill as well. Northern Territory will be consulted but seems less inclined to change. The consultation process will take at least two months. The government's website crashed as citizens went online to give their opinion. Sources: Nicholson M. South Australia has the most ridiculous time zone, and might be about to change it. Junkee 2015-02-06. http://junkee.com/south-australia-has-the-most-ridiculous-time-zone-and-migh... Ball G, Clift J, Coote G. Broken Hill urged to air views on proposed time zone change for South Australia. ABC News (Australia), 2015-02-06. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-06/broken-hill-community-urged-air-views-... SA considers changing time zone to match eastern states. 9NEWS 2015-02-05. http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/02/05/12/15/sa-considers-changing-time... South Australians remain divided on whether it is time for the time to change. 9NEWS 2015-02-06. http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/02/06/21/03/south-australians-remain-d...
On 8 February 2015 at 13:30, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
The South Australian government is considering changing their clocks by 30 minutes. The government would prefer advancing clocks by 30 minutes to match the time on the east coast. The public is split. Much of the resistance is coming from the west part of the state, where locals worry about their children leaving for school in the dark, and the government is prepared to consider changing school hours to address this. Another possibility is retarding clocks by 30 minutes; this would move closer to solar time, and would align better with Asia.
After a two-month public consultation and an economic report, the South Australian government still favors advancing 30 minutes to Eastern Time. This is despite 41% of business community respondents favoring retarding clocks by 30 minutes instead to so-called "true" Central Time, compared to just 15% favoring Eastern Time. Most, though, believed "there was 'little to no inconvenience' under the current arrangements" and want to keep the current zone. However, the report from the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies rebukes the status quo, suggesting that either shift "is estimated to produce net benefits over its costs, however, the shift to [Eastern Time] produces a substantially larger benefit" of as much as AU$2.5 billion. Premier Jay Weatherill says that, before issuing a final judgement, the government will first investigate the impacts to Adelaide's airport operations, as well as "the option of a local, unofficial time" or other measures for the state's west coast to minimize impacts there. The change could take place as soon as April 2017. Shift to Eastern Standard Time favoured by SA Government, despite business reticence. ABC, 2015-07-28. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-28/time-zone-shift-to-est-favoured-by-sa-... South Australia wants to move clocks forward 30 minutes. The Australian, 2015-07-28. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/south-australia-wants-to-move-cl... Bring SA time into line with east: govt. 9NEWS/AAP, 2015-07-28. http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/07/28/12/57/sa-govts-wants-est -- Tim Parenti
Thanks for the heads-up. It reminds me of the situation in Indiana a while ago: business interests wanted to switch to daylight saving and Governor Mitch Daniels (who at the time had US Presidential aspirations) pushed it through. There was a lot of controversy, and although Daniels is a president now he's merely the president of Purdue ... I wonder if the South Australian premier knows that? Anyway, the SA government reports can be found here: Report on community consultation over South Australia's time zone, 5 February – 10 April 2015. <http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/documents/dsd170-sa-time-zone-report-on-community-c...> Whetton S, Kosturjak A, Kaye L, O'Neil M. Cost benefit analysis of changes to South Australia's time zone. SA Centre for Economic Studies, May 2015. <http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/documents/changes-to-timezones-cost-benefit-analysi...> Three amusing things about the cost benefit analysis. First, it says the main benefit of switching to EST (+1000) versus switching to true CST (+0900) is "reduced business cost". The report does not explain this benefit or break it down. Second, it says the main cost of switching to EST versus true CST is "increased energy usage", citing Kellogg & Wolfe 2007. These costs would fall on the community. Third, the report mentions "software costs to implement new time zone" as a disadvantage to switching to true CST (as opposed to EST, where it says the software cost of switching should be zero). Apparently nobody associated with the report had much expertise in time zone software....
The government of South Australia has given up on the idea of advancing clocks by 30 minutes to AEST/AEDT. See: South Australian Government abandons time zone shift plans following Opposition's rejection. ABC News (Australia) 2015-09-11. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-10/sa-liberals-looking-to-past-on-time-zo...
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Paul Eggert -
Tim Parenti