Wikinews interviews Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Party about the upcoming Queensland State election

January 30, 2009

With a Queensland state election coming up in Australia, many minor parties will be looking to hold balance of power and making the major parties listen to what they have to say. Daylight Saving for South East Queensland (DS4SEQ) is one of these parties.

DS4SEQ is a single issue party which, as its name suggests, advocates the implementation of daylight saving in South East Queensland. Currently Queensland runs on Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10).

Queensland's unicameral parliament is due for election in September, but may be held earlier. The election, like all Australian elections, must be held on a Saturday. The election campaign will run for a minimum of twenty six (26) days and a maximum of fifty six following the issue of the writs.

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with the DS4SEQ. Answering on behalf of the party was leader Jason Furze.

Interview
Why do you want to form government?

Jason Furze: DS4SEQ would like to gain a sizeable percentage of the primary vote and win a number of seats. As we are a single issue party, voting for us will send a clear message to the major parties and that is: when it comes to the issue of daylight saving, the people of South East Queensland have ben [sic] ignored for too long, and a dual time zone arrangement must be implemented.

What are the three main policies you will take into this election?

Jason Furze: DS4SEQ is a single issue political party, with the sole policy being: to have Daylight Saving Time introduced into the South East Queensland region, under a dual time zone arrangement aligned to Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

Daylight Saving is a lifestyle and business choice and one that the majority of South East Queenslanders would like to have.

We acknowledge that there are many important issues facing the State of Queensland, however, DS4SEQ do not believe that this is a valid reason to ignore the majority voice who support daylight saving. How will you address these policies?

Jason Furze: The dual time zone concept that DS4SEQ is proposing is a well thought out compromise to the current situation that obviously does not work. The dual time zone boundary is formed by the inclusion of 15 local council areas and provides a respectful view towards regional and rural Queenslanders, whilst also giving consideration to the view of the majority of residents in South East Queensland. This will allow regional and rural Queensland to continue to operate on Australian Eastern Standard time, whilst the South East Queensland region adopts Daylight Saving Time for 6 months of the year.

If you can't form government, who would you like to see do so?

Jason Furze: DS4SEQ do not offer an opinion of which Party may form the next State Government. However, what we would like to see, is for both major parties to change their thinking about Daylight Saving in Queensland, and seriously consider a dual time zone arrangement for 6 months of the year.

What should Queenslanders keep in mind, when heading to the polls?

Jason Furze: Vote # 1 DS4SEQ and number 2 whicher [sic] party you would like to govern the state. Voting DS4SEQ number 1, will not be a wasted vote, because if the Party gains a sizeable percentage of the primary vote, winning a few seats along the way, this will allow us to convince the major parties to change their thinking on the issue of daylight saving.

As demonstrated by the 2007 Queensland Government research, about 70% of constituents within South East Queensland are in favour of daylight saving. State-wide, those who are against are now the minority, and mostly reside in the regional and rural districts outside of the DS4SEQ proposed daylight saving region. It has been 17 years since the people of Queensland have had a say on daylight saving, and in this time there has been a major shift in community attitudes demonstrating an increase in support.

"It's About Time!" that the people of South East Queensland had a voice on this issue. South East Queensland we are your voice, and "It's About Time!"