State Member for Tweed Geoff Provest’s bid to reduce daylight saving from six to five months has led to a storm on the Daily Liberal’s Facebook page.
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In a couple of weeks Mr Provest expects to introduce a private member’s bill to the lower house of the NSW Parliament, calling for daylight saving to end on the first Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday in April.
His advice on Tuesday that daylight saving remains “very divisive” has been borne out by more than 50 posts on this newspaper’s Facebook page by mid-afternoon on Wednesday.
They include the words of supporters and opponents of daylight saving that has been observed in NSW annually for 46 years.
Helen Oates wrote “love daylight saving time”. Alison Hughes reported that daylight saving “works well for my life”.
“We have enough daylight in the summer. Get rid of it altogether PLEASE,” said Gail Scanlon.
Many of the posts addressed the duration of daylight saving, the focus of the new bill.
Lynne Margaret McDougall wrote: “Too long, And my dog Coco agrees.”
Peter Cullen had advice for the state government and supporters of daylight saving. “Get rid of it, if people want it, get up an hour early yourself,” his post read.
Catherine Anne Clare wrote: “Too long... Should only be a summer thing ...3 months is long enough.”
Ness Sowden disagreed. “Keep it the way it is or extend it for longer,” she wrote.
Katie Hall would “love it all year round”. Samm Jones made a plea to authorities to “leave it as is”.
Mick Edwards likes daylight saving but thinks “it's a month too long at either end”.
By early Wednesday afternoon about 270 people had participated in a poll on daylight saving on the Daily Liberal website.
Almost 52 per cent of participants supported daylight saving ending a month earlier while 35.19 per cent wanted it removed permanently.
Mr Provest expects that his bill will be debated during parliamentary sittings in May or June.
He thinks the bill can get over the line if NSW Liberal Party colleagues get a “free vote”.
Daylight saving has been observed annually in NSW since 1971.
It was extended from five to six months in 2007.