Monday Musings
There's a bit of talk in the news and newspapers about changing South Australia's time zone.
We've been through this sort of talk before and nothing came of it.
Seems governments drag it up every time they want the public focused on something, so whatever else they're up to can be done unnoticed in the background.
I don't agree with changing our time zone. Our state is wide enough to deserve its own zone, with Western Australia also having its own time zone.
Heaven knows the whole country is wide enough!
"They" say turning our clocks forward to be in line with the Eastern states will be good for businesses and the economy.
"I" say wrong!
All that needs to happen is businesses working to an Interstate or International time table. That means working a different schedule than the nine to five they're used to.
Other countries all over the world seem to manage just fine without changing their time zones, we should be able to do the same.
Maybe that means some businesses have to work overnight, or from late afternoon to midnight, or perhaps midnight to morning.
Some places could hire more staff (bye-bye unemployment) and have shifts working around the clock (if necessary).
In this case it would be important to forget the penalty rate, since no one would actually be working overtime, simply doing their eight hour shift.
So what are your thoughts on this?
Should Australia copy the rest of the business world and work when other countries are "open for business"?
Or do we continue to sleep all night while overseas companies are trying and failing to get hold of us?
How does changing the South Australian time zone benefit anyone except the few politicians in the East who think we should join them? And how does it benefit them anyway?
Our own Jay Weatherill thinks we should change our clocks to be more in line with Asia, because we are closer to them and a lot of our business dealings are with Asia, whether it's China, Japan or wherever.
I still don't see the point.
Change the business practices, not the clocks.
I don't see our SA businesses benefiting by changing the clock.
It would be like year round daylight saving, and do our businesses benefit from that?
Of course not.
They still shut down completely when the clocks say 5pm.
And lose out on Interstate or International commerce because of it.
Just like they do in the Eastern States, where they also shut down offices and go home at 5pm.
We've been through this sort of talk before and nothing came of it.
Seems governments drag it up every time they want the public focused on something, so whatever else they're up to can be done unnoticed in the background.
I don't agree with changing our time zone. Our state is wide enough to deserve its own zone, with Western Australia also having its own time zone.
Heaven knows the whole country is wide enough!
"They" say turning our clocks forward to be in line with the Eastern states will be good for businesses and the economy.
"I" say wrong!
All that needs to happen is businesses working to an Interstate or International time table. That means working a different schedule than the nine to five they're used to.
Other countries all over the world seem to manage just fine without changing their time zones, we should be able to do the same.
Maybe that means some businesses have to work overnight, or from late afternoon to midnight, or perhaps midnight to morning.
Some places could hire more staff (bye-bye unemployment) and have shifts working around the clock (if necessary).
In this case it would be important to forget the penalty rate, since no one would actually be working overtime, simply doing their eight hour shift.
So what are your thoughts on this?
Should Australia copy the rest of the business world and work when other countries are "open for business"?
Or do we continue to sleep all night while overseas companies are trying and failing to get hold of us?
How does changing the South Australian time zone benefit anyone except the few politicians in the East who think we should join them? And how does it benefit them anyway?
Our own Jay Weatherill thinks we should change our clocks to be more in line with Asia, because we are closer to them and a lot of our business dealings are with Asia, whether it's China, Japan or wherever.
I still don't see the point.
Change the business practices, not the clocks.
I don't see our SA businesses benefiting by changing the clock.
It would be like year round daylight saving, and do our businesses benefit from that?
Of course not.
They still shut down completely when the clocks say 5pm.
And lose out on Interstate or International commerce because of it.
Just like they do in the Eastern States, where they also shut down offices and go home at 5pm.
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I don't know anything about your time zones but you do have some good logic.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with you about throwing up smoke screens so the government can do something else, unnoticed. I see that happening all the time and most people fall for it.
Every year here in Queensland the discussion/argument for daylight saving is resurrected and once again beaten to death. We don't have daylight saving here and I hope we never do. It was trialed back in the late 80s/early 90s...and I, for one (amongst the majority of others, particularly those in regional, northern and western areas) who hated it.
ReplyDeleteThe Gold Coast and south-east Qld will be jumping up and down about it again come October. I live in south-east Queensland and I'll be jumping up and down on the thought of having daylight saving...pounding it deep into the ground never to raise its ugly head ever again!!!
How right you are.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that those businesses which interact most with other countries already make adjustments. And I see no need for grocery shops, doctors, dentists etc to make the shift.
I don't work any more but when I did I liked day work only the beer fairy liked afternoon and night work he was on permanent night work and that suited him less traffic as he was a truck driver not sure what you are saying here, do they want to reduce overtime rates or employ more people that could be a advantage but more expensive.
ReplyDeleteMerle.......
Here in Victoria, Daylight Savings is enforced every year, and I dislike it immensely.
ReplyDeleteHubby loves it. So we're a house divided on the subject.
And, the government does stir up such topics to distract us from their nefarious deeds...
Manzanita; the smoke screens are such trivial things sometimes, yet fill our news services and papers so people don't see anything else.
ReplyDeleteLee; we had daylight saving for the three summer months, then it got extended even though nobody wanted it in the first place. but daylight saving isn't the issue here, "They" want our time zone permanently changed to be in line with the eastern states, which is what I don't agree with.
Elephant's Child; agree, agree, agree. more importantly, I don't see any need for schools to have to make the extra adjustments. Think about how wide SA is, think about tiny kids way over on our western border getting up early in order to catch school buses; do we want them getting up in the dark all year round? They already do that in the daylight saving extended months. On top of that, farm animals can't tell time; you can't get out there and tell the cows to stop mooing because the clock says it isn't milking time. Which has nothing to do with the big businesses issue.....
Merle; the issue here is governments wanting South Australia to permanently change their clocks so we are the same as you eastern state people. They say it will be better for business and the economy. I don't agree.
Vicki; I don't like daylight saving, I tolerate it because there's no other choice, but permanently changing our time zone is a whole different matter. I simply don't agree it is necessary.
I agree with you. A permanent change is unnecessary.
DeleteYes, I do realise that, River. But I thought I'd add my tuppence worth re daylight saving. Both as bad as each other.
DeleteAs an old friend of mine, Shirley, said when talk of daylight saving first was brought up back in the early Seventies...."Why do they want to fool around with Nature for...they just leave it alone?" I still tease Shirley about her saying that...all in good fun. We've known each other since 1965 when I first began working for her husband...I remained working for the company with him as my boss for the next 14 years. John has now passed away; and Shirley turned 80 on 15th July just gone.
Vicki; even daylight saving is unnecessary and an untruth to boot. We don't really save any, since the sun is up for the same amount of hours. what we gain in the evenings, we've lost in the mornings.
ReplyDeleteLee; you're right, or should I say Shirley was. There's already far too much fooling around with nature and all for money. Fracking, genetic modifications, trying to change weather patterns etc.
Governments always bring up something else when they want to hide something, you are very correct...
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have any trouble complying wit SA tome, however WA time we are getting used to..
Broken Hill goes with SA time as they are close to the border..
No need to change time zones. Business adapts to different times zones. If we want to sell some thing to a different time zone, we have to stay up late. The reverse is true if someone wants to sell something to us. I remember a German business person once say, if you want to sell something to us, our English may not be so good. If we want to sell you something, our English will be excellent. Such is the way of business.
ReplyDeletewhiteangel; see? you can adjust. I don't see why governments and businesses can't.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; correct, adjustments can and should be made. No need for any area anywhere to be changing their time zone. Although it would be handy for more people to be bi- or multi lingual.
Am I right in thinking that SA has a half our time zone? For example, if it's 8.0 in NSW it's 7.30 or 6.30 with you?
ReplyDelete