Peter Beattie is one of our cleverest pols. So when daylight saving appeared on the Queensland political agenda a few weeks ago, he naturally came up with a po-mo formulation for saying that it fades the curtains, not to mention the cancer threat it presents — “We’ve got the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world … an extra hour of daylight is going to make that worse”, the Premier postulated.  

Daylight saving is also on the agenda in Perth, where the West Australian chased comments from the state’s leaders last week. Here are some of their deeper thoughts:

  • “Who will cook the tea? While everyone is prancing around the beach or running around a park kicking a football, what will happen? I have a feeling our major takeaway outlets will love daylight saving because Mum will say to Dad: ‘We’ve had a great time in the park but I didn’t put the chops or potatoes on’.” – Bruce Donaldson: Liberal MLC
  • “If this legislation is passed and we have daylight saving, it will mean either that some alterations will have to be made or that people will have to accept that their wedding photographs may not be taken at sunset”. – Ray Halligan: Liberal MLC
  • “A lot of blokes do not turn up to work if the surf is up. They do not arrive until 11 o’clock in the morning. If we agree to daylight saving 11 o’clock will turn into 12 noon. By then it will be lunchtime, so they will take two hours off for lunch and think: ‘To hell with it, it’s not worth going to work at all’.” – Barry House: Liberal MLC
  • “The effect daylight saving will have on our circadian rhythms, which is the 24-hour cycle in the physiological process of living beings. When our circadian rhythm is upset, it puts us out of sorts. I do not want my circadian rhythm upset because I do not like being out of sorts”. – Robyn McSweeney: Liberal MLC
  • “If people are like the chooks and go to bed early, they are ready for a full day of daylight without touching the clock”. – Gary Snook: Liberal MP for Moore

The most thoughtful response, however, came from the Nationals MP for Avon, Max Trenorden – a very deep thinker indeed:

“In physics there is no such thing as time. The Earth goes around the Sun and rotates on its axis, and that is pretty wobbly too. We need atomic clocks to adjust time every now and then because it is not perfect. It might be worthwhile for people to remember that”. – Max Trenorden 

Thank God for State politics and state politicians.