Daylight debate gets personal

Western Australia’s business community is divided about whether the state should introduce daylight savings permanently.

WA Business News contacted a wide range of industry sectors following the conclusion at the weekend of the first year of a three-year daylight saving trial.

Predictably, those operating companies that interact with businesses on the east coast were big supporters.

Business’s peak body, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, says its members are supportive of the changes, which made doing business a lot easier.

But some business identities spoken to by WA Business News this week said daylight saving had no impact on their company and it largely came down to personal reasons as to whether they would vote for or against permanently adopting daylight savings.

“Day to day I don’t know that it made a lot of difference because the men turn up at the same time of day regardless of whether it’s light or dark,” Austal executive chairman John Rothwell said.

But Mr Rothwell said he would vote in favour of winding the clocks back, despite facing dark mornings for his regular walk.

“I’ve had to do a few walks in the dark but it is great to be able to have twilight at 8pm or 9pm at night,” he said. “I’ve got a dog with a white tip on her tail and I follow that blindly around the place – she’s my guiding light.”

But it’s a different story for fellow morning exerciser Dale Alcock, who runs Dale Alcock Homes.

Mr Alcock, who was a supporter of daylight saving before its introduction, said it had no impact on his business and if he had to vote on the issue now he would vote against it.

“I go swimming at 5.30am and when you spend all winter in darkness you look forward to getting the light in summer,” Mr Alcock said.

However, he said he wanted to experience the process again before making up his mind.

“I think we can be a little ‘small town’ about these things and we just need to adjust to it and rather than saying you can’t do it,” Mr Alcock said. “You just get over it.”

IGA Duncraig owner John Cummings said daylight saving had no benefit for his business despite 45 per cent of his wholesale network originating from the east coast.

Mr Cummings said there was no change in people’s shopping habits.

He added that he had friends who said it took twice as long to drive to Perth in the morning because tradesmen were starting work later, which meant they joined the roads at the same time as many office commuters.

“I would vote no for the basic reason that we get an extra 35 minutes or 40 minutes of daylight (compared to the east coast) in the evening anyway,” Mr Cummings said.

It appears the time change had little impact on WA’s power consumption.

A spokeswoman for Western Power said the utility was still crunching the numbers, but early indications showed the change had a “minimal” impact on energy consumption.

From a stock market point of view, Sentinel Stockbroking chief executive Norman Robinson said the time change was great for business.

“Anything that aligns WA to the financial centres of the east coast can only be a good thing,” he said.

Macquarie Financial Services WA state manager Rob Johnston said he would vote in favour of daylight saving because he enjoyed heading to the beach after work and that bridging the time gap with the east coast was ultimately the “best thing for business”.

Restaurateur Nic Trimboli said daylight saving had little impact on his businesses.

He said there was only a small increase in the number of late bookings and, at the moment, he would vote against daylight saving.

“It’s hard when you have kids. I think we have a warm climate and enough daylight hours in (a normal) summer,” Mr Trimboli said.

Restaurateur Kate Lamont said she would vote yes and said that she received more late bookings for her restaurant in March once people had begun to get used to the changes.

“I’m optimistic that it will improve my customer spend and I hope the government holds its nerve and doesn’t hold the referendum early,” she said.