Previously, in the Legislative Assembly...

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: [...] Some of the people who are opposed to daylight saving have been quite vicious in their e-mails. Some people have threatened that I will have my legs broken. Some people have made some nasty comments about my parentage.

Mr T.R. Sprigg: You have broken a few legs in your time! You are the “Godfather”, are you not?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I will get to that in a moment!

[...]

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: [...] I do not support everything in this bill. I do not support the referendum. However, I will be supporting the compromise bill that has been introduced by the member for Kalgoorlie and co-sponsored by me, because I believe it will unify the “yes” position and provide the best opportunity to put daylight saving in place at least for three years. At the end of that period, there will be a referendum, and the community -

Mr J.E. McGrath: Why only three years? Why not five years?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I would prefer to have no referendum at all.

Mr J.E. McGrath: If 95 per cent of people support it, why do we need a referendum? Why not just do it?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Because that is the position that the majority of members in this Parliament seem to support. In the end, this is a democracy, and the majority opinion will prevail.

I also thank the member for Kalgoorlie for giving me his support when I approached him to take a joint position with the government on this matter. His support was fantastic. However, I have a beef with the member for Kalgoorlie. He referred to himself as the father of daylight saving and to me as the godfather of daylight saving. I like to think of both myself and the member for Kalgoorlie as the parents of daylight saving. The only problem is that I am not sure who is the mother and who is the father! We can have that debate on another day.

Mr M.J. Birney: You might have spoken a bit too soon in any case! You should just retract those words for a couple of weeks!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Is that right? Is the member suggesting that we should wait until it happens? I actually think the term “godfather” should be given to the member for Hillarys - sorry, the member for Mindarie -

Mr R.F. Johnson: Whaddya say; whaddya say?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: The member has always said he wants to be an Italian!

Mr R.F. Johnson: I am an honorary Italian!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders -- Suspension]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: parliament, state government, perth, wa, dst, daylight savings

Email intuition

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: Leaving aside the 3 000-odd e-mails I have received - I could not find in the e-mail river any from people within my electorate. I have been scanning through them as best I can. By and large, I believe they are not people from my electorate who are involved in this electronic campaign.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: What average of those people would e-mail you and me?

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I do not mind people doing it.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: It collapses my whole office.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I do not mind.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: I’ve got one electorate to look after.

The ACTING SPEAKER: Order, members!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: It is a historic thing; it is unprecedented campaigning in my experience of this place. In 25 years in Parliament I have never seen us experiencing this type of electronic campaign which -

Mr G. Woodhams: Intimidation.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: No, no, it is not intimidation.

Mr G. Woodhams: Soft-headed modernism!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: Welcome to the modern world, member! Expect more of it and in big numbers. If anything, those people who are organising our Internet system will need to devise methods for us to conduct electronic business while simultaneously having the opportunity, off to the side, to receive this type of lobbying. I expect we will get more of it.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: Just dump it. Hit the dump button.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: That is 3 000 hit buttons to get that dump button. There is another way of doing it and most members have worked out how to do it. One puts it across into a discrete area of one’s e-mail. One can see it there growing and every now and then when one wants to have a look, one can do so.

Mr M.J. Birney: You can also do something crazy like read them! How do you know if they are from your electorate if you do not read them?

Several members interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER: Order, members!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I think I have been digressed!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders -- Suspension]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: parliament, state government, perth, wa, dst, daylight savings

Here's one I prepared earlier

MR M.J. COWPER (Murray) [10.24 pm]: [...] Some people like to get up early in the morning. They like to exercise in the morning and get going and be on their way. Various members have spoken about their experiences and what they like to do first thing in the morning. I am a morning person. When I was younger, I was a late-night person. As one gets older, the general trend is that one prefers to get up early and go to bed early. I do not know about other members, but I have difficulty staying awake after about 9.30 in the evening, given that I am up at about quarter to five most mornings. The fact is that when the sun comes up, I get up and when the sun goes down, I go home, have my dinner and go to bed.

Mr A.D. McRae: You’re like a chook!

Mr M.J. COWPER: I am exactly like a chook. I am a bit like that member. The only difference between the member and Fat Cat is that Fat Cat has friends.

Mr A.D. McRae: You’ve had that one lined up for a while, haven’t you?

Mr M.J. COWPER: The minister left me no option; I had to lob that one back over the fence.

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders -- Suspension]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: parliament, state government, perth, wa, dst, daylight savings

An independent?

MR B.S. WYATT (Victoria Park) [4.35 pm]: I do not propose to speak for a great length of time. I will make a few points simply because of the public feedback that I, like all members of Parliament, have received. What surprised me initially about the Daylight Saving (No. 2) Bill 2006 is the response that I have received from members of my electorate and from people all over the state. It is quite clear from the many e-mails that we have all received that this bill has a personal impact on everybody. Every time I have spoken to somebody, I have been given different views. I note that the member for Mindarie referred to different family members who have different views. I have been quite heavily pressured by my mother to vote against this bill.

Mr G. Woodhams: Your mother cares for you.

Mr B.S. WYATT: She does care for me.

Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: I hope she lives in the electorate.

Mr B.S. WYATT: She does live in the electorate and, like 2 000 other people who live in the electorate, will not be voting for me again if I support this bill. However, I do not think she voted for me the first time. That is perhaps not a loss. However, I will be voting in support of this bill.

Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Shall we send her a copy of your speech?

Mr B.S. WYATT: She will be reading it. This bill does have some significance for the people of Victoria Park. The last three referendums on daylight saving have been relatively close.

Dr K.D. Hames: What does your dad think?

Mr B.S. WYATT: He supports me whatever I do.

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders -- Suspension]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: parliament, state government, perth, wa, dst, daylight savings

In another time

Hon PETER FOSS: In speaking to the amendment, I would like to put to bed the concept that, if the house sits earlier, members will get more sleep. That rationale is very much like the daylight saving argument. The amount of sleep we get is determined by the amount of time available between the house’s rising and the time it commences. It is fallacious to say that we will get more sleep if the house starts earlier and rises earlier. It is almost as good an argument as that which claims the curtains will fade because of daylight saving.

Hon Kim Chance: I think I said it would get us home a little earlier.

Hon PETER FOSS: It will get us home a little earlier, but it will get us out of bed a little earlier, so we will come back to Parliament half asleep; we will have the potential for an accident on the way to work rather than on the way home. That is wonderful.

Hon Derrick Tomlinson interjected.

Hon PETER FOSS: Yes, then we would not have to go to bed at all. The government’s reasoning is fallacious in two ways. When I was in practice many years ago, and as the state would not have daylight saving, I started my own daylight saving by coming into the office an hour earlier.

Hon Derrick Tomlinson: And your curtains faded.

Hon PETER FOSS: The funny thing was that I went home at exactly the same time as I did without the daylight saving. I just worked an extra hour every day because the signal to go home was when it went dark.

Hon Kim Chance: Did you find your milk went sour?

Hon PETER FOSS: The milk went terribly sour and the curtains in my car were totally faded, but -

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Hon George Cash): Hon Peter Foss is speaking to the issue of the deletion of “2.30 pm” and the substitution of “3.30 pm”. I cannot understand where the milk comes into it, but I will allow a little leeway. In the end, members, Hon Peter Foss is entitled to speak to the amendment, and only that.

Hon PETER FOSS: I was referring not to milk, but to the hour. The change from 2.30 to 3.30 pm will be sensible. The entire concept of starting earlier in order not to sit later is fallacious. The amendment not only has the advantage of enabling a party room meeting of upper house members, which is highly desirable in trying to deal with things, but it gets away from the fallacious argument that starting earlier will provide more sleep. It will not. In fact, I expect the opposite to be the case.

Hon Kim Chance: We are going to agree to the amendment.

Subject: Standing Order 61(a), Sitting Times [Legislative Council - Motion]

Date: 27 April 2005

Hansard reference: pp. 721c - 731a [online (pdf)]

Tags: state government, wa, perth, parliament, daylight savings, dst

Sands of time

MS K. HODSON-THOMAS (Carine) [4.18 pm]: I was hoping to receive the call in time to acknowledge my son who was in the public gallery; however, he has left.

Mr C.J. Barnett: He is off to the beach; that is what daylight saving is about!

Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: Yes, he is off to the beach.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am sorry, member for Carine; you were beaten on the voices. I am sure he is here in spirit.

Mr C.J. Barnett: He will be back for dinner in an hour.

Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: He is lucky if his mother prepares him a home-cooked meal, because she is never quite sure when he will be home!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders Suspension - Motion]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: wa, state government, perth, parliament, dst, daylight saving

Putting the mochas on

Mr T. BUSWELL: [...] The Treasurer said that daylight saving will help to make this state more energetic and engaging and a better place for tourists to visit. I accept that may be a valid argument. However, I mulled over that and asked what state in Australia would I regard as an energetic and exciting state from a tourism perspective. The answer is Queensland - the Gold Coast and Cairns.

Ms J.A. Radisich: Victoria.

Mr T. BUSWELL: Victoria is hardly the tourism capital of Australia! I know that for the inner city, latte sipping Labor sorts, a trip to Melbourne -

Mr J.B. D’Orazio: That is what you are.

Mr T. BUSWELL: I come from a regional centre where we grind our way out of the dirt.

Mr J.B. D’Orazio: I saw you sipping latte.

Mr T. BUSWELL: By the bye, I am a flat-white fellow - I cannot pronounce “latte”.

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders Suspension - Motion]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: wa, state government, perth, parliament, dst, daylight saving, latte

Well, it's possibly more relevant than the Baghdad example

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I am speaking today for a particular reason. The people who have taken the time to e-mail and contact us have gone out of their way. I need to record in this debate the fact that so many people have made the effort to contact us. I want to present these e-mails to the house so that the statistics will be recorded in Hansard forever. As I have said, my office has received more than 5137 e-mails. We have been very careful to ensure that if two e-mails have been sent from the same email address, we delete the second one so that we do not get a figure that is not true and accurate.

Mr B.J. Grylls: Your poor staff!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Yes! I was going to get to that. Ailsa, who is in the public gallery, and the other staff members in my office have had an absolute bugger of a week. They have said to me, “No more private members’ bills, please!”

Mr R.F. Johnson: What did you say?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I said, “See you next week!” I want to present these e-mails to the Parliament. I am not sure whether I can table them for those members who want to see them. As I have said, 96 per cent of the e-mails are in favour of daylight saving.

Mr R.F. Johnson: You can seek leave to lay them on the table for the balance of this day’s sitting.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I do not want them to be taken out of the chamber and made public.

Mr R.F. Johnson: No. If you seek leave to lay them on the table for the balance of this day’s sitting, they cannot be taken out of the chamber.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: For the record, the e-mails that I am holding up are the ones that we have received in opposition to daylight saving. The two boxes of e-mails are the ones that we have received in support of daylight saving. I say that because I do not want to be accused of not presenting both cases.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Did you print them all off?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Yes.

Mr R.F. Johnson: What a waste of paper!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: This is an important issue.

Mr B.J. Grylls: Daylight saving will lead to the loss of old-growth forests!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 [Standing Orders Suspension - Motion]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: state government, parliament, perth, wa, daylight saving, dst, emails, old growth forests

Making friends for Nigel

HON PETER COLLIER (North Metropolitan) [11.21 am]: The debate on the Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 has consumed a considerable amount of time of this house and I do not intend to go through every issue that was raised. There has been an enormous amount of uniformity in the issues that have been presented. I thank members for their contribution to this debate.

Hon Ken Travers: Felsy introduced new arguments.

Hon PETER COLLIER: Arguments on both side of the daylight saving issue are valid. However, an issue such as daylight saving ignites passion like very few others. People feel very passionate about daylight saving. Unfortunately, it impacts upon relationships and friendships. I know that it has seriously tested my friendships.

Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich: It would not mean much.

Hon PETER COLLIER: I am talking about friendships not inside this chamber, but outside the chamber.

Several members interjected.

Hon PETER COLLIER: That is right, I am a Nigel-no-friends. Call me Nigel!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Council - Second Reading]

Date: 16 November 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 8335b - 8376a [online (pdf)]

Tags: wa, state government, perth, parliament, daylight saving, dst

Actually it's quite desirable for potential developers

Hon ANTHONY FELS: [...] Submissions about those issues ought to be made, considered and addressed before we have daylight saving for three years, and possibly beyond. Referring this bill to the Standing Committee on Legislation will give us that opportunity.

[...]

The committee must also consider the impact that daylight saving will have on migration to Western Australia. [...] One argument that has been presented in favour of daylight saving is that WA now has hundreds of thousands of new Western Australians who were not here 15 years ago. Those people have come from places such as England, which has daylight saving. The committee can determine whether those emigrants would have come to Western Australia if we had daylight saving. It may also consider what other groups of people we might be able to attract to WA. Western Australia is enjoying an unprecedented boom economically; indeed, property values are rising despite the fact that we do not have daylight saving.

Several members interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Order, members! There are too many interjections. Hon Anthony Fels has been given direction about what he can and cannot say. He has been keeping within those reasonable bounds; however, when he has strayed, I have had cause to pull him up. I do not need members to interject and thus prolong the debate unnecessarily.

Hon ANTHONY FELS: Another issue that must be considered is Western Australia’s location in relation to cities in the eastern states. [...] Many cities in the world have daylight saving. Perhaps it is worth looking beyond the convenience of being able to ring someone in Sydney or Melbourne an hour earlier. A committee will be able to consider how daylight saving will impact on our communications with other cities in the world. I note that Baghdad has daylight saving. However, that does not necessarily make Baghdad a great place to live.

Hon Kate Doust interjected.

Hon ANTHONY FELS: Perhaps Hon Kate Doust should be on the committee.

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Council (second reading)]

Date: 16 November 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 8335b - 8376a [online (pdf)]

Tags: state government, wa, perth, parliament, daylight savings, dst, baghdad

Greenough is Greenough

Yesterday, the daylight saving bill was finally accepted by the Legislative Assembly. In memoriam of a sane time zone, I thought I'd share another one of the member for Greenough's brilliant compositions:

Mr G. WOODHAMS: [...] During my browsing in the National Gallery of Australia and the National Library, I came across, not unexpectedly, a poem dedicated to daylight saving. It was written by that well-known poet or poetess - not Dorothea Mackellar. The poem is called I Love A Sunburn Daily -

The love of beaches and stubbies
Of chardonnays by the pool
And doing deals in Sydney
With Coles and Woolies too
Strong love of wearing raybans
While driving in your Govvie car
I know but cannot share it
Because this time you’ve gone too far

See I love a sunburn daily
An extra hour will not work
The last time we were asked to try it
We were still recovering from Premier Burke
I love my faded curtains
And cows producing latte
My clock on Western Standard Time
And more bloody hours at Bunnings on Sunday

The tragic Labor government
And those swingers Matt and Johnny D
Long lunches with revenge intent
Giving Eric an extra hour to spend our surplus. Free.
Let the Greens tangle in the upper house
Where the Ljiljannas coil,
And trendies deck the lounges
After a hard day’s toil

Core of my heart, my rolex
Her ticking body so sweet
Mum and Dad rolling around in the morning
There’s a scene hard to beat

Mrs D.J. Guise: That’s too much information!

Mr G. WOODHAMS: Members will read into this bill what they want to read into it; that is what I have been hearing throughout the debate! The poem further reads -

But then the clockheads gather
And we can bless again
The dopey daylight savers
Who haven’t got a brain

Core of my heart, my cheap imitation bought in Thailand Rolex
In this land that time forgot
An extra hour every day,
And Carpy wants the lot.
We now have one fat time zone
All lined up with the Congo
Even the Mandurah line can run on time
With Alannah the Station Master keeping time on the bongo

The filmy veil of woopy weed
That thickens in the air
Pot smokers another hour to burn and indulge in vacant stare.
A summer of endless daytime
No clock to hold her back
This wilful, lavish land sucking mid strength
Can’t catch a taxi, mate they’re enjoying the sunset at Cottesloe
And the flag fall will set you back.

Mr Acting Speaker, this is the last, I think very important, verse of one of Dorothea’s lost poems -

All you who have not loved her,
Daylight savers You don’t understand -
Though sunburn holds many splendours,
And of it when I die,
I know to what Time Zone
My homing thoughts will fly.

Mr Acting Speaker, I am in an emphatic mode; maybe you did not gather that. Maybe some of the soft-headed modernists, as I refer to them, on either side of the house do not understand it, either.

There was a forum in ancient Rome, during the Roman Empire, known as the senate, in which there were several Caesars. Members may know about the senate and about Caligula, who appointed his horse as his successor emperor.

Mr R.C. Kucera: A bit like the leadership of the Liberal Party!

Mr G. WOODHAMS: The member may be correct, and I will not dispute him on that note.

Subject: DAYLIGHT SAVING BILL (NO 2) 2006 (WA Legislative Assembly)

Date: Tuesday, 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a (online (PDF))

Stop.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: [...] I will run through this chart. It summarises the whole daylight saving issue. The bottom of the graph shows the hours of zero to 24, which is normal Western Australian standard time. The hours at the top are daylight saving time, with the one-hour difference. It shows the business times in the eastern states, and the overlap with Western Australia. It shows the enormous benefits that daylight saving will have for business. That might seem small, but it is a huge factor.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Who prepared that graph?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Dr Hammer.

The green lines show sunrise and sunset. The blue line shows the evening meal time. The recreation time is highlighted here. The evening recreation time is shown as being half during sunlight hours and half not during sunlight hours. This is what it will be under daylight saving. The white part on the graph shows the time that is allowed for people to get home after work. The significant thing from my point of view - this is something that all members should look at - is the meal and recreation time. I call that family time.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Do we all have to eat at that time?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I would be happy to swap the blue and the orange lines for the member for Hillarys, because he is unusual! They are interchangeable. That shows how daylight saving will have the biggest benefit in giving families time to recreate together and engage in the activities that they enjoy.

There has been an interesting argument that daylight saving will result in a huge difference in temperatures. The graph shows the temperature rise, and also the temperature fall when the sea breeze comes in.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Is that every day? I find that astounding!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I am glad, member for Hillarys! I hope that at the end of this debate the member for Hillarys will be supporting daylight saving! The difference in temperatures because of the one-hour time difference will be between half a degree and one and a half degrees. It is not significant. The argument has been put that there will be a huge increase in temperatures, and school kids will die in the heat of the school bus. The reality is that the maximum increase in temperatures will be between half a degree and one and a half degrees. It will make very little difference. That is real data, not imaginary data.

Mr T.K. Waldron interjected.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I am not going to win the argument with the members of the National Party.

Mr R.F. Johnson: You have convinced me, my friend! That graph is absolutely astounding!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I like the member for Hillarys’ humour! I am very serious about the fact that daylight saving will be of enormous benefit for business. More importantly, it is about lifestyle and families, and about tackling the health issue in our community.

Mr C.J. Barnett: I think we need a photo of you holding up that graph!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I am sure I will have many to give the member!

Mr D.T. Redman: Is it correct that the hottest time of the day is actually four o’clock?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: On the day shown on this graph, the temperature peaked at four o’clock. It will peak at five o’clock during daylight saving hours. As I have said, the difference in temperatures because of the one-hour time difference will be between half a degree and one and a half degrees.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Do you give a guarantee with that?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: The member for Mindarie has given an unequivocal guarantee that if anyone’s curtains fade because of the introduction of daylight saving, he will replace them.

Mr R.F. Johnson: I have a pair of curtains at home that have faded!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill 2006 (Legislative Assembly, second reading)

Date: 25 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7648b - 7652a [online (pdf)]

Tags: curtains, daylight savings, parliament, perth, state government, wa