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 21st! 
Remember – ‘It’s about time’
Jason Furze
DS4SEQ Party Leader