Revealed: Labor’s opposition to timezone change
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis says changing South Australia’s timezone to eastern standard would be expensive, inconvenient and “I cannot see any real need for it”.
At least, that was his view when he spoke against exactly that proposal in a 2005 parliamentary debate.
In fact, two of the Weatherill Government’s most senior ministers – Koutsantonis and Health Minister Jack Snelling – have spoken against previous private member’s motions to change the timezone, and the Premier himself once voted down a push to adopt true Central Standard Time.
The revelation will give weight to those who suggest yesterday’s barbecue-stopper policy thought-bubble is driven more by political expediency than by zeal.
When Weatherill threw the notion out for public consumption, his Treasurer was an enthusiastic cheerleader, tweeting: “It’s time to talk time zones, do we move SA’s time zone closer to WA or the East Coast? Let the conversation begin.”
But he was more keen to kill off the conversation when crossbencher Kris Hanna introduced his own bill to shift SA to eastern standard time in February 2005.
“I cannot see any reason why we should do this,” Koutsantonis told parliament at the time.
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He pointed out there were “some advantages to being on Central Standard Time, some of which are involved with the stock market”, with investors having “more time to gather information”.
“South Australian investors are fortunate that the stock market opens here at 10 o’clock rather than at 9.30, as it does on the east coast … they have half an hour or even an hour longer than our eastern states counterparts to do research into what stocks should and should not be moving,” he said.
“I think South Australians function quite well on Central Standard Time … I also think that the eastern states have some disadvantages by being ahead of us in the time zone.”
He surmised he could “see no real advantage to this”.
“It is something that would probably be expensive to implement; it would take a lot of getting used to, especially with daylight saving.”
Snelling later spoke against an alternative bill proposing we shift our clocks back half an hour to “true” central standard time, saying: “I do not see how setting our clocks back half an hour will achieve terribly much, apart from causing a fair amount of confusion and disruption.”
Then-Families and Communities Minister Jay Weatherill even interjected during Snelling’s speech. While Hansard doesn’t record the exact interjection, Snelling helpfully responded to it: “The minister interjects, ‘Don’t let your sun go down on me,’ which might be the theme song for this debate.”
In the end Hansard records both Weatherill and Snelling voting against the bill, along with John Rau – which means the four most senior members of the current Government have previously opposed a timezone change.
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However, then-Liberal Martin Hamilton-Smith supported it.
Hamilton-Smith was yesterday designated by the Premier to consult on options for timezone reform.
Parliament debated the matter again in July 2009, when now-retired Liberal Ivan Venning moved a motion promoting “the shift of (the) South Australian timezone to nine hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time, putting South Australia a full hour behind the Eastern States and a full hour in front of Western Australia”.
This time it was Labor MP Tom Kenyon, now Weatherill’s parliamentary whip, who led the charge against the idea. Ironically, Kenyon was subsequently made Minister for Trade, in which capacity Hamilton-Smith is now investigating reform options.
“(This) matter involves the whole state and, while some people may be inconvenienced, and that is unfortunate, we ask: what is the overall benefit to the entire state?” Kenyon said.
“There does not appear to be any significant community sentiment for changing the current arrangement wherein South Australia is only half an hour behind the Eastern States. I think it is fair to say that only a small section of the population supports the proposed move, and it is mainly those from the western areas of the state.”
He said support for alternatively moving to Eastern Standard Time was “mainly from the business community through Business SA”.
“The government considers that any shift would cause problems and possibly costs that are disruptive and unnecessary,” he said.
“The current state government and former governments, after fully considering all the issues involved with moving to a different time zone, have decided that the current arrangement should be retained with South Australia remaining 30 minutes behind Eastern Standard Time.”
Just five years on, it appears they’ve changed their mind.
Kenyon says he was reflecting the Government’s position at the time, but that position has “definitely” changed.
“It’s worth thinking about,” he said.
Koutsantonis told InDaily he did not stand by his comments: “That was a decade ago.”
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