UPDATED: The Weatherill Government has dumped its plan to bring a bill to parliament to align South Australia’s timezone with the eastern states.
Trade Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith, who led the debate for the Government, announced the decision this afternoon after the state Liberals revealed they would oppose the proposed move to Eastern Standard Time.
“Sadly the people of SA are going to be denied what would have been a really worthwhile debate about timing,” he said.
“The bill the Government’s prepared would have presented a really compelling case for change.
“The Government will not be proceeding with the bill …. it is unlikely to succeed given the Liberal Party’s intransigence.”
News Corp reported today that the Liberal Opposition would oppose the contentious push to put local clocks forward half an hour, and that the Greens, Family First and John Darley had resolved to do likewise.
However, there still appeared to be at least some hope of the bill passing as late as this morning, with a number of crossbenchers saying they were open to being persuaded.
Greens MLC Tammy Franks told InDaily this morning her party’s position wasn’t yet finalised and urged Labor to “bring on the debate”.
“I’ve yet to be convinced of a case for change, but certainly bring on a parliamentary debate, because we want to scrutinise facts and figures,” she said.
An internal survey of Greens party members suggested a “difference of opinion” on the merits of the move, she said, but it was too early to declare the proposal dead in the water.
“We’re interested in the debate,” said Franks.
“We’re not convinced of the need for change, but show us the evidence.”
Family First was not against changing timezones per se, but was staunchly opposed to the Government’s favoured position to shift clocks forward.
“We would actually favour a move half an hour backwards towards Western time, which would put us on our true geographic time,” said MLC Dennis Hood.
“If there was a change in that direction, we’d support that (but) we will oppose moving to Eastern Standard Time.”
If ousted Labor MLC Bernard Finnigan had voted with the Government, it will have required a further four crossbench votes to pass the legislation, which InDaily understood would have amended a section of the existing Standard Time Act to delete “9 hours and 30 minutes” in advance of Co-ordinated Universal Time and substitute: “10 hours”.
A spokeswoman for Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent said this morning it was “too early to be making a final decision” as “we don’t have a bill before us”.
“We want a solid proposal in front of us before we make a final decision,” she said.
If the Greens and Vincent could have been swayed, the bill’s fate would have rested with John Darley, who today told InDaily this morning he would not support the proposal “as it stands at the moment”.
John Darley: “This Government is dumb.”
Hamilton-Smith said earlier today the legislation would “have with it some additional economic modeling” suggesting “there’s around 200,000 jobs in South Australia dependent on exports and about 130,000 of them are with the eastern states”.
“There’s new research that we have that show there’s 130,000 South Australian jobs putting meals on the table every night as a result of our trade with the eastern states, so (aligning the timezone) is important,” he told ABC891.
But Darley said “if they’ve got further information why not put it out before today?”
“I think this Government is dumb,” he said.
“If they’d put all their cards on the table, I might have been prepared to be persuaded, but it’s too late now.”
The Opposition resolved to oppose the bill, which will win favour in their safe rural seats.
Before the Government’s announcement, Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman said the bill was already “dead in the water for us, certainly”.
“If the Government decide they want to push it, well, they’ll push it through the Lower House because they have the numbers there, but I think they will find it will reach the fatal jump in the Upper House,” she told ABC radio.
