It’s summer in Queensland and what better time to holiday with the family. This year, instead of our traditional Sunshine Coast family holiday, we decided to take a trip across the border to a great little spot in Northern NSW, Kingscliff. I hadn’t been to Kingscliff for many years but was pleasantly surprised with the holiday destination. Besides the nice beaches, good running/cycle paths and great restaurants, daylight savings was the big winner in my opinion.

Strange as it may sound to some, waking up at 5.30am for a morning run whilst it was still cool and finishing a round of golf at 7pm was a highlight for me. A short trip over the border to drop my son off at Coolangatta airport bought me back to the Queensland daylight saving reality…its non-existence. I needed to remember to wind back the clocks, adjust the time for pickup in Sydney and worst of all, coffee shops were not yet open!!!

I’m not sure if I have been reading the wrong newspapers but when did you last see a story about the justification for sticking with this ridiculous policy in Queensland? Maybe complacency has set in or the silent majority don’t have a loud enough voice to stir up our politicians.

Some recent surveys on daylight saving

The Courier Mail commissioned a survey that asked “Do you support a new trial being held?”, not surprisingly a resounding 88 per cent of the 7154 Survey Monkey respondents said yes. A Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland 2010 survey of over 2,250 businesses found that businesses located in South East Queensland expressed a significantly high level of support. 77.7% were FOR a trial.

I would love to see a survey done by Queensland Tourism interviewing interstate visitors and overseas guests regarding their views on this subject. No doubt our interstate cousins are basking in the daylight saving afternoon sun and Queensland business and tourism continues to be in the dark.

So just how much does it cost this State to retain the status quo?

Well a bit of internet research from indicated that the annual cost to Queensland is around $4 billion. Yes, that is $4,000,000,000pa and the curtains still appear to be good in NSW and cows are milking just fine. I find that interesting as the people who actually cared one way or the other would vote yes to daylight savings in Queensland.

So what am I missing?

Is the Queensland Government happy to give up $4bn every year and rely on a minority of people to stick with the current status or is there one politician out there willing to stand up for the obvious?  For me, the experience of holidaying in a state with daylight savings was very appealing and so next year I think I will head to a state south of the border who has seen the light.