DS4SEQ Party Leader’s Blog

Since the beginning of the year, I have noticed a higher level of frustration from those in the South East Queensland region, in relation to ‘live’ television programming, when it’s not actually live.  These circumstances are not only a source of annoyance to viewers in South East Queensland, but also provide a headache for the TV stations, in having to make these programming decisions.  All of this is simply because South East Queensland does not have Daylight Saving.

For sports lovers, during the early months of the year the telecast of many major events is either delayed into South East Queensland, or viewers in the region miss out on some of the coverage.

For example, the One-Day International cricket matches are live into South East Queensland, however, the scheduled 6pm news bulletin impedes upon the full telecast and thus viewers in the region do not see half an hour of coverage.  However, on weekends a programming change is generally made by the station, with the news bulletin brought forward to 5pm to be aligned with the break in the cricket.  In addition, due to South East Queensland not having Daylight Saving, some of the Twenty20 cricket matches were shown on a one-hour delay.

The Australian Open Tennis coverage is also delayed into South East Queensland, except for the Grand Final matches.  In fact, in the lead up to this year’s Federer v Hewitt showdown, I had to laugh when Federal Liberal MP Peter Dutton Tweeted “is ch 7 serious delaying the tennis for home and away”.  This clearly shows that even MPs feel this frustration, however, maybe Peter should aim his dissatisfaction at his state colleagues for having such a negative stance towards Daylight Saving in South East Queensland.

Delayed coverage doesn’t stop at sporting events either.  Reality TV programs are screened into South East Queensland an hour behind the rest of the east coast states.  A number of viewers gleefully take part in Twitter ‘real-time’ banter regarding the contest; however the audience in South East Queensland joins in, only to be informed of results from southern counterparts, just as the show nears its close.

Programs that promote themselves as being ‘live & interactive’, may well be just that for viewers in southern states, but certainly not for the audience in South East Queensland.  Viewers also log in to Twitter to follow comments from others and participate in online discussion, but are left confused for the early parts of the show due to southerners commenting on the final stages of the program.  This is annoying for viewers when trying to interact with others, who become frustrated at being part of an echo within the Twitter world.

I am aware of a number of viewers who have dropped their participation in online discussions due to this continued frustration, and have vowed not to return until after South East Queensland is no longer behind the other eastern states.

There are even some programs that have their timeslot as their title, but could be more aptly named due to this delay into the South East Queensland region.

The integration of social media and television programming appears to be on the increase.  Given the rationale to promote and encourage ‘live and interactive’ debate, I know a lot of people in the South East Queensland region who would love to be a part of it all during the Daylight Saving months.

At the beginning of April, and after six months of once again having to endure the absence of Daylight Saving in the region, the belated echo of South East Queenslanders in these online forums will cease, as will being left behind…well for the next six months at least.

Live and Interactive into South East Queensland? – “It’s About Time!”

Jason Furze

Party Leader

www.twitter.com/ds4seq

Hello to all our supporters and other interested persons! 

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

I feel very positive about the opportunities that 2010 provides the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Party, to further progress the issue of Daylight Saving, and I certainly believe there are some interesting times ahead.

Later this month marks 18 years to the day, since the one and only Queensland Referendum on Daylight Saving.  The 22 February 2010 is momentous, because on this day anyone born at the time of the Referendum, becomes eligible to vote.  That represents a full ‘electoral generation’ having evolved since the 1992 Referendum.  These new eligible voters will have never experienced Daylight Saving within Queensland, let alone had a chance to vote on this issue.

This defining moment, further emphasises how a result from 18 years ago is outdated and does not reflect current demographics.

As we approach this red-letter day, I thought I would provide a brief overview of the events that surrounded the 1992 Referendum on Daylight Saving in Queensland:

• In 1989, Premier Mike Ahern (National Party) announced that Daylight Saving would be re-introduced as a one-year trial.  A Daylight Saving Task Force was appointed, in order to monitor and report community opinions, and provide recommendations.
• State-wide Daylight Saving commenced in Queensland on 29 October 1989.
• Wayne Goss (Labor) was elected Premier in December 1989.
• Daylight Saving in Queensland ended in March 1990.
• The Daylight Saving Task Force delivered their report to Premier Wayne Goss in May 1990.
• Premier Wayne Goss considered the Task Force advice, with two of their recommendations adopted, and these were:  to extend the trial of Daylight Saving for a further two years; and to hold a Referendum after the trial.
• State-wide Daylight Saving continued in Queensland for a further two summers 1990/91 and 1991/92.
• On 22 February 1992 a Referendum on state-wide Daylight Saving was held in Queensland, with the majority voting against the concept.

It should be noted that a further, significant recommendation from the Daylight Saving Task Force was ignored:

“That Daylight Saving be introduced for that part of the State, east of the 151 degree East longitude, for the period adopted by the other states.  Eastern Australian Standard Time to apply to the rest of the state.”

Yes, that’s right!  In May 1990 (almost 20 years ago), the Daylight Saving Task Force recommended the implementation, and trial, of a dual time zone.  The Task Force had recognised that Daylight Saving is favoured within South East Queensland, but not supported outside this region.

The Referendum did not provide further scope for gauging support for a dual time zone.  However, analysis of the 1992 Referendum result, confirms the earlier observation made by the Task Force – that Daylight Saving is mainly favoured in the South East Queensland region.  Around 60% of constituents in the South East voted in favour of Daylight Saving.  Out of Queensland’s 89 electorates, 51 resulted in a majority ‘Yes’ vote, and all of which were located in the South East region.

In 2007, a Queensland Government-commissioned Nielsen report provided a renewed outlook on Daylight Saving and again highlighted this geographic divide, by indicating around 70% of South East Queenslanders are in favour of Daylight Saving.

A dual time zone has never been trialled, nor voted upon, in Queensland.  So for both the Queensland Government and state Opposition to continue relying upon a Referendum result from 18 years ago to justify their policy stance, is redundant.

In recognising the Referendum anniversary, let’s reflect upon how the landscape of Queensland has transformed over the past 18 years.

• Queensland’s population in early 1992 was less than 3 million, it has now swelled to around 4.5 million.
• Paul Keating was Australia’s Prime Minister; Wayne Goss was Premier; and Anna Bligh had not yet entered politics.
• Only 1% of the population had a mobile phone; the ‘world wide web’ (internet) didn’t exist; and gaming machines had only been operating in Queensland clubs for just over a week.
• Wally Lewis had recently retired; and the Brisbane Broncos were about to embark on their 5th year in the NSWRL, which was to become their first premiership season.
• The Brisbane Bears were heading into their 6th season in the AFL, and staging their home games at Carrara on the Gold Coast.
• Matt Hayden was enjoying his debut season with the Queensland cricket team, which had still not won the Sheffield Shield.
• Some of the popular TV programs at the time were A Country Practice, E-Street and a show devoted to future developments in science and technology – Beyond 2000.
• Rick Astley and Vanilla Ice were all the rage on the music scene; and Terminator 2 and JFK were screening at the cinemas.

Times have changed over the last 18 years, and the community attitude toward Daylight Saving has progressed to a more generally favourable outlook.  Therefore the issue of Daylight Saving should be revisited, and addressed to more accurately reflect current community sentiment.  To resolve this issue, the option of a dual time zone, with Daylight Saving for South East Queensland only, should be seriously considered as a viable alternative.

After returning to Brisbane last month, Premier Anna Bligh relayed to her Twitter followers:  “…looking forward to 2010 – lots of opportunities & interesting times ahead”.

I couldn’t agree more Premier Bligh.  2010 provides lots of opportunities to resolve the issue of Daylight Saving for Queensland – by introducing a dual time zone.  Instead of ignoring the issue of Daylight Saving, applying a more relevant solution would make for more interesting times for all Queenslanders. 

After 18 years without Daylight Saving in South East Queensland – “It’s About Time!”

Jason Furze

Party Leader

So we are now two weeks in from when the eastern and southern states adopted Daylight Saving for another year, and the frustrations, delays and inefficiencies have also made their way back into the lives of the majority of South East Queenslanders.

South East Queensland businesses that have regular dealings with clients and counterparts in other states, particularly New South Wales and Victoria, are greatly affected.  A number of these businesses are forced to operate on extended times, in order to ensure customer services continue to be provided locally, along with maintaining client expectations and business relationships throughout the whole Australian east coast.  Business travellers are inconvenienced by the necessity to get up at 3am, to ensure that they make the ‘red-eye’ flight and are on time for their 9am meeting in Sydney or Melbourne; or if not, they are forced to fly down the night before, incurring more expense.  Stock order deadlines are brought forward an hour when ordering from Sydney or Melbourne, to ensure warehouse requirements are maintained and client orders can be met.  A number of other inefficiencies also occur, due to South East Queensland’s non-alignment, and overall it is a frustrating time for employees of businesses affected, and of course, adds an unnecessary burden to these organisations.

Television and radio programming is also tested during this time.  In order for programs to air at a station’s desired timeslot, anything that is recorded ‘live’ in Sydney and Melbourne, is suddenly aired into the South East Queensland region, on an hour’s delay.  In the past, these delays have presented problems for viewers wishing to cast their votes during reality T.V. programs.  Other programs that are directly impacted by the time difference anomaly, include major sporting events, along with those that are ‘live and interactive’; for example, the Q & A program on ABC TV, along with talkback radio and various phone-in competitions.

The number of people directly impacted by this one-hour difference is growing each year.  This is added to the ever-increasing amount of individuals who would simply like to have Daylight Saving within the South East Queensland region, in order to enjoy the social benefits and increased lifestyle opportunities that it would provide to them.

We know that the results of the 1992 Referendum emphasised that those who favour Daylight Saving mainly reside in the South East region of Queensland, and this support has been consistently re-affirmed in opinion polls ever since.  There is also no doubt that the majority of people in Queensland would like the opportunity to experience Daylight Saving; and anyone who disagrees with this, is in denial.  The majority support for Daylight Saving was highlighted by the 2007 Queensland Government commissioned Nielsen research, and numerous opinion polls in recent years have also confirmed this trend.

Given this majority support, Daylight Saving could possibly be introduced state-wide.  However, to ensure that the majority of all of Queensland’s residents are satisfied, a dual time zone is the only solution that will achieve this.  Whilst we agree, some of the abovementioned anomalies would exist with a dual time zone within the state, there is no doubt the impact upon individuals and businesses would be significantly reduced.  That is why a dual time zone must be considered the most favourable option to resolve the issue of Daylight Saving within Queensland.

Remember – ‘It’s About Time!’

Jason Furze

Party Leader

Hello once again, to all our faithful Daylight Saving for South East Queensland supporters.

It has been six months since the Queensland state election was held.  We have a newly elected and ‘refreshed’ Labor Government, led by Premier Anna Bligh and a new-look LNP Opposition, who have a greater representation in the Queensland Parliament, and are now under the leadership of Gold Coast MP John-Paul Langbroek.

So, has Daylight Saving been introduced into the South East Queensland region in this time?  Unfortunately not!!

Neither of the two major parties have changed their stance on the issue of Daylight Saving…yet!  South East Queenslanders still have high hopes that either Premier Bligh or Mr Langbroek will finally see to reason, and stop ignoring the issue of Daylight Saving.

With just over a week to go before other eastern and southern states proceed with the annual ‘clock on’ to Daylight Saving for another year, let’s reflect on the facts about the issue of Daylight Saving relating to Queensland.

Firstly, it has been well documented that not adopting Daylight Saving is a burden on South East Queensland businesses, due to additional travel and extended staff hours, in order to accommodate Daylight Saving business hours in other states.

Added to this, a very large number of people are affected by the current disruption that is caused by the ‘time border’ running through the densely populated Gold Coast-Tweed region.  Logically, if the ‘time border’ was shifted to a more sparsely populated area, north-west of the urbanised South East Queensland region, the number of people disrupted would be significantly reduced.

It must also be noted, that it has been nearly 18 years since the one and only Queensland Referendum on Daylight Saving was held, which gauged support for State-wide Daylight Saving in Queensland; and was defeated.  However, since the 1992 Referendum, more than 1.1 million voters have been added to the Queensland electoral roll, and are eligible to have a say on the issue of Daylight Saving; just under 950,000 of these additional registered voters live in the South East region.

In this time, there has been an overwhelming increase in support of Daylight Saving, indicating that the majority of Queenslanders are in favour of its introduction.  This support is geographically divided, with the majority of residents in South East Queensland being supportive of Daylight Saving, while the majority of Queenslanders residing outside this region, oppose its introduction.

Given all of this information, it is easy to understand why the issue of Daylight Saving within Queensland needs to be revisited, and that the most logical solution to resolve this issue, is to introduce a dual time zone.  A dual time zone would assist businesses in the South East region, and would also satisfy the majority of all of Queensland’s residents, not just the minority, as is currently the case.

The issue of Daylight Saving within Queensland has been sitting in the ‘Too Hard Basket’ for so long, that the major parties have become too comfortable and complacent in remaining with the status quo, continuing to ignore the issue, and even claiming it isn’t an issue.  However, Daylight Saving has become an increasingly more significant issue facing Queensland.  To deny this, is to deny the needs of business, and deny the people of South East Queensland greater lifestyle opportunities.

As Daylight Saving is a geographic issue for Queensland, with both major parties having acknowledged this, a question must be asked of both the Premier and the Opposition Leader:  “Why is the geographic issue of Daylight Saving within Queensland, continually ignored, when a logical geographic solution is at hand?”

In light of all of the above (pun intended ), I would like to share some statistics with you, on the performance of the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Party at the March 2009 Queensland State election.  These numbers are encouraging, however, it is a shame that the election was called so abruptly, as it did not give us the chance to become more widely known and really ramp up the support!

• The Party was born in December 2008 – only 3 months old when contesting the election
• Commenced campaigning only 3 weeks before the election date
• Contested the election with 32 candidates (4th largest party represented, behind the ALP, Greens and LNP)
• The largest ever contingent for a single-issue party in Australia’s history
• Averaged around 2.5% of the primary vote in the 32 electorates contested
• Received the largest ever vote tally for a single-issue party in Australia’s history (in the lower house)

For one issue to be voted upon in this manner, it is obvious that there are concerns throughout the community, that Daylight Saving is a significant issue which requires urgent attention, and needs to be addressed appropriately.  The Party takes pride in the fact that the issue of Daylight Saving in South East Queensland, has now been firmly placed on the political agenda.

One last point:  Before the March election, all of us involved in the Party were political novices.  Now that we have experienced our first election campaign, I would encourage you to follow us on the next part of our journey.  However this time, buckle up!

Daylight Saving for South East Queensland – ‘It’s About Time’

Jason Furze

Party Leader

…..it’s just a jump to the left

…..and then a step to the right

OK, enough of the Rocky Horror anthem, but to be honest whatever the outcome of tomorrows election, be it a ‘jump to the left’ or a ‘step to the right’ one thing will be certain, the lack of Daylight Saving in South East Queensland will be firmly placed on the political agenda.

We have always been very realistic and pragmatic about what we would be able to achieve in or first campaign (note that’s ‘first’, not ‘only’).  We have never had any pretences about forming a government and we have always been totally upfront that we are focused on one issue and one issue alone, the fact that 69% of South East Queenslanders want daylight saving, yet both the main parties continue to be dead set against it. Our objective is to bring about change, change of thinking and change of attitudes on this issue.  Only by accepting the blindingly obvious logic of a dual time zone that meets the needs of BOTH South East Queenslanders and Regional Queenslanders (by not imposing DS on them) can the majority be satisfied on this issue.

Inevitably during this campaign we have been written off by the mainstream parties (and to a great extent, also by the mainstream media) as being a fringe group of loons with a no hope policy.  However the grass roots advocacy of our fantastic candidates, combined with some judicial use of modern on-line campaigning techniques has seen our message extended to a wider, and welcoming, audience.  Slowly, bit by bit, the simple logic of our approach is being understood and embraced by many who would previously never have considered voting for a single issue party.  We are of course fortunate that the ‘optional preferential voting’ that we have in state elections means that a great many voters who would normally vote for other parties have contacted us to say they are going to vote 1 DS4SEQ to get the message across on their demand for daylight saving, and then use their preference vote based on their other political views.

So, am I going to make any predictions for the outcome, well no, not really.  The polls reckon it’s to close to call all around.  I will make one prediction though, whoever winds up a Premier, when they come to the analysis of what they need to do to stay ahead with voters next time around, one of their advisors is going to say most emphatically, ‘we really need to fix this daylight saving issue’!

Let’s make sure that we send our message loud and clear so that when that conversation takes place (and it may happen as early a this weekend) there can be no scope for doubt that the introduction of Daylight Saving in South East Queensland is what the people of South East Queensland want!

VOTE 1 DS4SEQ

After all, it’s really is about time!

Jason Furze

DS4SEQ Party Leader

Why are some people so resistant to change?

That’s the question I was asking myself at the end of this evening’s Channel 7 news bulletin.  I was watching because 7 News turned up to cover our ‘Launch with a difference’ event this morning and I wanted to see what coverage we got.  Good news, we where the lead story in the politics/election section, bad news, they got our name wrong!  It’s really frustrating when I see us referred to only as ‘The Daylight Saving Party’ – aghhhhhh!  We are the ‘Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Party’.  No doubt we will once again be deluged with emails from those in points outside our proposed zone diligently explaining why they don’t need daylight saving.  We of course will equally diligently respond that our proposal is only for South East QLD, and we have no intention of trying to impose daylight saving on them in exactly the same way that the lack of daylight saving should not be imposed on the majority in SE QLD who want it, and that’s why our proposal is best for all of Queensland etc etc.   So please ladies and gentlemen of the media, please please please get our name right!

Anyway, back to reflecting on resistance to change.  Later in the same news item 7 News did one of those great little ‘Flashback’ things they do.  The story was about the two ladies who chained themselves to the bar in the Regatta Hotel back in 1965 to protest about women being excluded from public bars.  Today of course we find it rather extraordinary that women ever faced this kind of exclusion, let alone that one of the catalysts to that change was two very courageous ladies who were determined to get their point across.  I could not help but think that maybe one day there will be story like this about Daylight Saving in SEQ, and people will comment on how surprising it is that there was ever a time when SEQ did not have daylight saving, and even more surprising, did you know that there was even a political party set up to get DS in SEQ – amazing!.

One other thing that struck me, and what really got me thinking about resistance to change, was that fact that after their stunt these ladies apparently received death threats. Bizarrely, I heard today that one our candidate’s had had their garage door pelted with fruit, now may have been sheer co-incidence of course, it could just have been kids messing about, but it’s a rather odd coincidence!  Obviously a minor incident like that is not in the same league as death threats, but it does make you wonder just why sometimes those who are so resistant to change react in such an anti-social way when faced with rational and logical arguments for change that they are just unable to overcome?

Enough of the deep and thoughtful stuff.  Back to the highlight of the day, which was of course our launch this morning.  It was a very silly and fun event, but nevertheless making a really important underlying point about the level of disruption that SE Queensland’s lack of Daylight Saving causes in this area.  We have had quite a few messages of support from people in that particular area saying how much difficulty the time difference causes them from both a business and family perspective, and how pleased they are that somebody (us) has at last picked up the challenge to actually try to do something about the SE QLD DS issue.

We will get our own footage of our whimsical launch sketch up on Youtube as soon as we can.  Our thanks to all those involved, especially our two actors for agreeing to get up so early to play their roles, and of course, the rest of the supporting cast and crew.  We will be hitting the media releases and the web and new media ‘airwaves’ with more interesting stuff this week.  It’s now that we really have to start hitting home our message, so if there is anything you can do to spread the word by responding to on-line polls or blog comments in support of our mission, please do so!  In fact, as I write this I see that we are currently in the lead on one on-line poll – wow!  Go to www.qldvoice.org and cast your vote there to keep us in the lead!

We kind of see this as a practice run for the real thing on the 21^st!

Remember – ‘It’s about time’

Jason Furze

DS4SEQ Party Leader

What a day!

I guess we always knew that today was going to be big for us, we have packed so much effort into such a short time that we were always going to go down to the wire on some things, and getting all our candidates registered in time certainly did.  Cut off time was 12 midday today, we left the ECQ building at 11.50am – hey, we actually had 10 minutes to spare in the end!  What was I worried about

But the big news THIRTY TWO CANDIDATES!!!

OK, not the full complement of 67 we would have ideally liked, but lets get this in context.  We are a single issue party who have been registered for less than 3 months.  Or, to look at it another way, we are fielding more candidates than Family First and One Nation …… put together!  Whichever way you look at it, getting this number of candidates together is a stonking achievement in it’s own right and one I think we can be justifiably proud of.

I am proud not just for this achievement, but also for the fact that 29 other party members (outside of our executive) have chosen to put their reputations on the line, stump up the cash for an electoral deposit, and back our view that ‘it’s about time’ the people of South East Queensland got daylight saving.  That’s a huge leap of faith on the part of all our candidates and one I wish to publicly thank each and every one of them for.

So, now we have to set about the fun bit – getting our message out there.  We have a number of activities planned for the remaining weeks of the election campaign, watch this space for more details.  Right now though my real concern is that one thing may trip us up, and it’s not the competition, political risks, or Pauline Hanson pointlessly grabbing all the media attention!  It’s money, or more accurately the lack of it!

DS4SEQ has been put together on a total shoestring budget, but the trouble with shoestrings is that they only stretch so far.  We have barely enough cash in the bank to do the minimum essentials to support our candidates, with just a little more we could so much more.  I know the begging bowls have been out on many fronts recently and for very worthy causes, but if you or anybody you know can stretch to contributing a few extra dollars it really could make all the difference for us. Donations can be made on line via the website at www.ds4seq.org.au/donate.html

Finally, and on a much more positive note, we held our first party general meeting this evening. Well attended by a number of supporters and candidates, thanks to all those who came along.  Fortunately for me I was largely able to leave the running of the meeting in the capable hands of our Chairman, John Burkett, and Secretary, Marcus Fitz-Gerald, who between them made it all run like clock-work.  We rounded off the evening with a good general chat and exchange of ideas with the candidates present, a really useful discussion.  We are running with some really smart people as candidates, all of whom are passionate about what we are looking to achieve – I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to working with this team of great people over the next three weeks!

Remember – ‘It’s about time’

Jason Furze

DS4SEQ Party Leader