Today’s West Australian brings a Westpoll survey of 400 voters showing federal Labor with a two-party lead in the state of 52-48. This points to a swing of over 5 per cent compared with the 46.7-53.3 result at the 2007 election, which if uniform would net Labor Swan (which the Liberals won by 0.1 per cent at the election, but it now has a 0.6 per cent Labor margin after the redistribution), Stirling (1.2 per cent), Cowan (1.2 per cent) and Canning (4.3 per cent), which rumour has it will be contested for Labor by senior Gallop-Carpenter government minister Alannah MacTiernan. The poll also shows 52 per cent of respondents rate Kevin Rudd best to handle the economy against 29 per cent for Malcolm Turnbull, compared with 44 per cent and 40 per cent in the October survey. However, Rudd’s 61-25 lead as preferred prime minister is slightly lower than in the February survey, when it was 63-22.
On Saturday, The West reported that this same survey showed 51 per cent planning to vote against daylight saving at the May 16 referendum against 47 per cent in favour. Yesterday it was reported that 60 per cent were in favour of allowing shops to open until 9pm on weeknights and all day on Sundays, which got the thumbs down at a referendum held in conjunction with the 2005 state election.
400, why do they bother.
[ 60 per cent were in favour of allowing shops to open until 9pm on weeknights and all day on Sundays ]
You beauty. Maybe we get a useful referendum next time, rather than the fifth iteration of the Groundhog Day-style DLS one?
I bet DLS had an hand in that 60% figure, actually. The sight of everything shut for an extra hour of the day would’ve made a few people wonder why they voted no in 2005. I wonder what the figure would be for allowing pubs to trade until midnight on Sunday night (ie: same as every other night)? That’s the other blue law in Perth which bugs me.
You’d find it hard to imagine Labor could do a whole lot worse in WA than they did last time.
fredn, 400 may not sound like a large sample, but it is a significant proportion of The West’s remaining circulation.
As I live within a stone’s throw of the office of Michael Keenan -the member for Stirling and shadow minister for Workchoices- I am expecting to be deluged with propaganda any time soon. No doubt his famous smile will be a little forced and decidedly nervous.
Ozy but you know that out of all those seats Keenan is the most likely to survive 😉
I would have thought it was more dependent on the way the GFC unfolds. Cowan and Canning are more traditional mortgage belt seats. Swan and Stirling are more middle urban mixed middle class suburbs – the new mining money I think went into nicer homes in these electorates, while Canning & Cowan would have been your old style labour areas. But I wonder if Perth isn’t a little homogenised these days, much more dependent on how people feel more generally about the world, rather than seperated into those that have mostly real material concerns and those with ‘higher’ aspirations. So these seats are all the ones that really sit in the middle between the Curtin’s & Fremantle’s of the world – they’ll shift according to a more complex formulae than just class, education or wealth. My expectation would be for Canning (if Alannah runs) to fall to Labour before Stirling. But then my local knowledge is getting rusty now, so am open to discussion about these electorates characteristics.
Glen, ex-SAS officer Peter Tinley cut Keenan’s margin in half at the last election, despite the poor result for Labor overall in WA alluded to by ltep at 3. I saw Tinley at my local petrol station on election night and asked him if he was prepared to try again in 2010 and he said: Sh1t yeah! I can’t see any reason why Keenan would do any better against him next time, given the appalling performance of his party so far.
Also, Keenan really should do something about the Alt-tag to the photo on his biography here: http://www.keenan.net.au/Biography.asp , as it’s not a good look. Also, Google “Michael Keenan biography” and check the first result. It doesn’t read well.
Peter Tinley wont’ run again, i’m suprised he said that on election night, because he apparantly was saying he didn’t get enough help.
Canning would fall if it didn’t have a hard working MP, but Randall does about 3x more work than Irons or Keenan do (Keenan is normally too busy pressing the flesh in Canberra). If Canning went, so would Cowan, Stirling and Swan.
I don’t agree with, but can understand, those who are against DST. I can not understand for the life of me though how and why the shopping hours are messed around with here in WA. Can someone who knows please explain? I’m looking for an unpartial explanation that is all, just trying to understand why. It defies all logic that I can see.
It’s fairly simple. People don’t like change. If you give them the option to vote for a change they’ll almost always vote no.
There were other silly arguments offered up, particularly focused around independent retailers (eg. IGA) making most of their profit whilst the majors were forced to be closed, as well as arguments offered up by religious extremists.
I’ve heard the IGA line from Frank before. That, in and of itself, doesn’t wash as enough of a reason with me. IGA’s are nationwide and the silly, archaic shopping hours aren’t, they are only here. I’m pretty sure (?) even QLD, which is more of an anti DST state than WA, doesn’t have the shopping restrictions. So you can’t even tag “conservatism” as a factor either. Has to be something else, something WA specific.
DST is bad because the cows will fade and the curtains won’t give milk… or something like that.
At the moment (and in my humble opinion), Perth has the amenities of a provincial town, the aspirations of a large city with the benefits of neither. However increasing the shopping hours would go a long way to change this in my books. DLS would be great too but let’s take one step at a time.
Had the Daylight Saving vote been taken after the first summer of the trial, I would have had no doubt it would have been defeated. But the difference to this trial compared to the other 3 referendums we’ve had, is that having it over 3 summers has made some people get use to it. Plus the vote will be in the cooler month of May, compared to the votes in March and early April in the preview 1975, 1984 and 1992. In May, the sunrises close to “March daylight saving” levels and sets well before 6pm. People may tend to miss the evening light by then, and the warmth!
I think the vote this year will be a lot closer than many people think. The country will be against in the region of 70% again, but it will be the Perth Metro area that will decide who wins. It is quite possible that a 60% yes margin could be achieved in the metro area. If that were to happen, the yes statewide vote will be ahead.
As an early riser and a parent, I’m not keen on DST. I used to have a beautiful extra hour of early sunshine in which to enjoy my garden and my neighbourhood walk, without the background buzz of pique-hour traffic and before the boy’s day began. And my son most often had the benefit of the Freo Doctor during his walk home from school, instead of making the journey at what is usually -in Perth- the hottest part of the summer day. The extra hour of evening is also invariably filled with the agro grunt and doof of the local bogan boys in their hot utes, on their way to the beach. Getting home an hour earlier from work also means running the aircon for an extra hour.
Call me a conservative, provincial Luddite, but I don’t have any problems with local businesses being three hours behind the east coast capitals -they can adjust their own hours if they wish- and I’ll be voting No.
jacob, given the string of 30+ days we’ve had lately, I think a lot of people won’t miss “the warmth” at all.
Hi Ozymandias,
Just consulted the Bureau of Meteorology web site. Perth and Sydney have similar/same annual/monthly l mean temperatures. So with all due respect, if 5-6 million people of NSW that have as hot or hotter conditions can deal with the hottest part of the day/going for walks/air conditioners running…etc, then I think people of Perth can. I live in Perth currently and have lived in many other cities around Australia and the world – the ‘heat argument’ is, in my opinion, tenuous at best. Each to their own I guess. Besides, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about DLS changing here anyway. It won’t get up.
Jules
[Glen, ex-SAS officer Peter Tinley cut Keenan’s margin in half at the last election, despite the poor result for Labor overall in WA alluded to by ltep at 3.]
That’s half of not very much, Ozymandias. The swing to Labor in Stirling was smaller than the state average. I agree though that Tinley was a good candidate, and think the explanation for the Keenan’s win is that, as Stewart J says, “the new mining money I think went into nicer homes in (Swan and Stirling)”. It would make sense to me if Cowan and Canning swung more heavily next time.
Ozymandias, I’m also an early riser (due to work) and a parent of 2 young children. I’ve found daylight saving to be great, so has mots of my extended family. I will miss it quite a bit next summer.
Julian @ 17, that’s a furphy.
Perth has maximum daily temperatures 2 degrees higher than Sydney in winter, and 4 degrees higher in summer. Add to that the humid, wet summers Sydney tends to experience, and there’s no meaningful comparison. Adelaide would be a better one for summer time (but not for winter – it’s a fair bit colder).
jacob,
[
I’ve found daylight saving to be great, so has most of my extended family. I will miss it quite a bit next summer.
]
Counting our chickens a little early? 😉
[Ozymandias, I’m also an early riser (due to work) and a parent of 2 young children. I’ve found daylight saving to be great, so has mots of my extended family. I will miss it quite a bit next summer.]
On the other hand, as my father (who is 83) and still involved in the family vineyard works by the sun and doesn’t come in till 8pm during Daylight savings, which means we don’t usually eat dinner till 8.30-9pm, and you will find that with a lot of other rural people. Also it stuffs up my body clock badly.
If you suburbanites want it – get up an hour earlier 🙂
Here are some courageous heroes putting their careers and their livelihoods on the line for the good of humankind: Michael Raupach, John Church, Pep Canadell and James Risbey. They have moral courage but they will not get medals or statues.
From Richard Farmer in today’s Crikey
‘The latest example of official CSIRO timidity was reported this morning in The Canberra Times in a story revealing that a group of senior scientists working on climate change have been gagged from speaking out about Australia’s proposed greenhouse gas reduction targets. Fortunately the four scientists are made of sterner stuff than their bureaucratic superiors. Michael Raupach, John Church, Pep Canadell and James Risbey, the paper says, have broken ranks with CSIRO to make personal submissions to a Senate inquiry into the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme. They claim tougher targets are needed to avoid Australia being ”locked in” to dangerous climate change, and list 14 recent scientific findings that support their argument.’
A suburbanite might care when the shops open, why would someone working in vineyard care one way or the other, he works by the sun not by the clock, you said as much.
I actually liked DLS one summer of the trial… that summer, I spent in Melbourne. 😉 Quite a bit of the time there the afternoons / evenings were nice and cool, about 25C (as well as one day in January when it was cold and raining), so you can actually do stuff outside. (Though next summer there was record-breaking heat and bushfires killing 200… Melbourne, eh?) Apparently if you don’t like the weather there, wait for a few minutes and it’ll be something else. Perth’s different; if you don’t like NE’ly winds off the desert and high 30’s / low 40’s, tough – it’s like that for the next four months. That’s one of the issues with DLS here – it’s too hot, too often. If it’s 40C, you don’t want to go extending that another hour.
Anyway, I happen to like the night. Most of the fun things I do happen after the sun goes down. I can end up almost completely nocturnal if I don’t have work or uni to keep me in line, and I like it like that. That’s my lifestyle and I’ve got as much right to it as people who like going to the beach in the daylight. They seem to do nights better in Melbourne, which has DLS, anyway… compare Swanston St at 11pm (dark, buzzing) to William St at 7pm (light, mostly dead). Sunlight isn’t everything.
As for that trading hours referendum, I’d have more sympathy for IGA / Dewsons / etc if they didn’t charge so much more than Coles and Woolworths. I imagine our resident Liberals would have a bit to say about competition and markets there.
One person’s daylight ‘saving’ is another person’s daylight ‘loss’.
Before daylight saving there was actually a time of the year when we cow cockies got up and the sun was already up, or when it was rising. It was good. That way, you could actually see the cows when you were rounding them up for the milking. This was much better than having to round the cows up in the dark by listening out for their breathing. True. (Yeah, I know, I know, but a torch cost good money and in those days there was not always a lot of that about in the milking game.)
The city folk want their extra hour of recreation or shopping and all that sort of really important quality-of-life stuff. In our democracy, cities are where most voters live, so cities rule. Farmers who are inconvenienced by the city folk’s desperate need for more shopping and recreation time just need to get over it, get a life and get on with it.
Bernard Keane in today’s Crikey:
‘Under the ETS, the Government will hand over nearly $4b over five years to electricity generators. The biggest beneficiary of this bonanza will be the UK firm International Power, which will pocket more than $1b from Australian taxpayers courtesy of the ETS. Hong Kong’s CLP Power International will trouser nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars. The NSW Government will get nearly $400m. The Queensland Government will get over $100m.’
I need someone to explain to me why it is that something that is not going to make a skerrick of difference to Global Warming is going to cost us all so much. It looks more like an efficient scheme to gather capital from Australians and to export it overseas.
[ The city folk want their extra hour of recreation or shopping and all that sort of really important quality-of-life stuff. ]
See, DLS doesn’t give city folk an extra hour of shopping time. It gives them an extra hour of being able to see the surreal, only-in-Perth sight of a major suburban shopping centre car park deserted in the middle of the afternoon. That sorta thing makes me think the people screaming out for ‘progressiveness’ in sleepy hollow have enthusiastically grabbed hold of the wrong solution. And then they’re rude about it. (I usually see the cows / curtains arguments as sneering comments from pro-DLS’ers, not from people who actually know what a farm looks like.) Being called a Luddite, anti-progress, etc is the main reason I’ll be voting no – I’m contrary like that. If you want to convert me to your cause, don’t insult me.
(Second half of that paragraph not aimed at you, Boerwar. 🙂 )
Ozymandis @15 says
“Getting home an hour earlier from work also means running the aircon for an extra hour”
Surely you get home at the same time by the clock and go to bed at the same time so where do you fit in the extra hour for the air con? I have heard this argument before and always thought it spurious.
I live in Perth, love DST and manage just fine without air conditioning
Ben,
If it’s a phurphy (according to you) then you’d better tell the Bureau of Meteorology. Being a scientific body, they tend to avoid including ‘phurphys’ in their data. And frankly, if you’re arguing over a mean of 4 degs then I’m not sure your point is worth making. I’m talking about the actual mean temps. Humid weather (Sydney) is far more uncomfortable than dry weather and Adelaide has DLS if you also want to compare to Perth. Sorry Ben, next argument please. I’ve heard that fading curtains and the rather disgusting/tasteless ‘causes road fatalities’ line trotted out last week be the WA Farmers Federation (quickly debunked by the RAC). Don’t get me wrong, I understand and respect that many people don’t want DLS – and fair enough too. As it happens, I like DLS – the extra hour of daylight is great – but I’m not going to try and tell people that it makes drying the clothes easier/watering my lawn in the day light possible after work. As it happen is does but they’re hardly good, let alone ‘gotcha’ arguments for DLS. Let’s keep the arguments sensible.
Jules
I actually think that of those marginals Cowan may be the most difficult seat for Labor to pick up.
Its a high growth area and that growth would seem to be anti-Labor. Edwards suffered a big swing against him at his last contest in 2004. At last year’s state election, Wanneroo swung big to the Libs (Labor had a incumbent MP, so this can’t be explained away by the “no sitting member” factor.)
Additionally Simpkins is a first term MP. So if he’s a hard worker, he could benefit from sophomore surge.
That said, I still tentatively expect WA to swing to Rudd. But maybe the above listed factors will cancel out that swing in the case of Cowan.
Julian@30, a 4 degree average difference is BIG in climate terms. And you are also only referring to average MAXIMUM temperature.
Perth and Sydney have completely different climates which makes people’s experience of summer very different in the two cities. Sydney is sub-tropical, Perth is Mediterranian. It barely rains in summer in Perth, and dust build up in summer is so pronounced that if it ever does get humid or wet in summer, power polls start to short from the accumulated dust and catch fire.
The average summer maximum temps in Sydney are 25.2/25.0/25.7, Perth’s 27.4/29.7/30.0. But both cities have their maximum temperature determined by the arrival of the sea breeze. Sydney’s arrives very regularly. Only when there are strong westerly winds does the sea breeze not come into Sydney, and on those days the temperature can rise to 40.
In Perth, the temperature is already reaching 30 by midday if the Fremantle Doctor doesn’t arrive. The average number of days per month beyond 30 in Sydney is 3/5.6/5 over summer, in Perth it is 8.8/13.8/13.4/ The same figures for temperatures over 35 are Sydney 0.8/0.8/0.5, Perth 3.3/3.1/3.2.
Both cities have roughly the same day length in mid-summer of just over 14 hours, but Perth gets on average an extra 3-4 hours per day of sunlight. Unlike Sydney, Perth does not get those Sydney days where storms build up during the day, or those peculiarly Sydney days where the south-easter blows and you get low cloud cover all day.
Sydney is also centred on its time zone where Perth is not. In mid-summer, the sun is up half an hour later in Perth and stays up an extra half hour. And because there is no afternoon cloud build up in the west, the sun seems to stay up forever in Perth.
One final point, have you ever been to a Perth beach once the Fremantle doctor comes in? Perth’s sand is whiter and much much finer than Sydney’s. The doctor is a stronger wind once it sets in, and by mid afternoon on a Perth beach, you are at risk of being sand-blasted. Where Sydney people like an afternoon trip to the beach (if they can get there), the same experience in Perth can be very unpleasant.
All these reasons explain why Perth people seem less interested in daylight saving than people in Sydney. They are all lifestyle type reasons, but in the end, its lifestyle that will determine whether people like or dislike daylight saving.
oh, and read my blog dissecting the WAFF.
I should say I’ve been having to gatekeep endless mad views on daylight saving in recent months at http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/2009/02/wa-daylight-sav.html
Arguments about perceptions of temperature, daylength, etc are quite valid compared to arguments I’ve had to sieve through about heart attack rates, car accident rates, circadian rhythm. People either like or dislike daylight saving, but everyone loves to try and find a statistic that backs their position, even though every study I’ve read is at best ambivalent about the benefits of daylight saving.
Any stats on electricity consumption, Antony? As most Perth people run their air-cons all night, I would have thought DLS would have increased “spikes” during hot days -not a good move in these global warming times.
I am not surprised that federal Labor has a narrow lead in WA now. If the state Liberals lost last year’s state election, the federal Liberals would be ahead of federal Labor in WA.
It is a common balance between who’s in power at a state level and who’s in power at the federal level.
You mean, except in every other state but NSW, do you Bree?
I believe federal Labor was in front in WA before the state election.
More Bree bollocks…
How much daylight has been saved during the daylight saving trial? I presume none, as usual. A total failure then, as usual.
And Julian Watson at # 30 re your “I like DLS – the extra hour of daylight is great” – I presume it must be a boon for solar energy collection then – that extra hour of daylight?
Thank goodness Queenslanders have voted to keep Queensland strong and have overwhelmingly voted against daylight saving.
I hope the sensible people of Western Australia vote against this silly nonsense, yet again.
I believe I should be stating the bleeding obvious however; as you get closer to the equator the difference in day length gets less and less. It makes no sense for Queensland to have daylight savings, the length of the summer days really isn’t that different to their winter days.
It makes more sense down south and then it depends on you preference. Do you want a few hours sun before you go to work or a few more hours after. Me I wouldn’t mind getting up at 5 am to see the summer sunrise so I don’t care.
Latitude wise Perth is half way between Sydney and Brisbane, daylight savings for Perth makes a little more sense than Brisbane and a little less than Sydney.
Not quite Fredn. The lattitides are Sydney 33:50, Perth 31:52, Brisbane 27:29. On the longest day of the year, the daylight length is 14:25 in Sydney, 14:14 in Perth, 13:52 in Brisbane. An 11 minute difference in daylength compared to Sydney isn’t much.
However, if you ignore daylight saving, the sunset times on the longest day of the year would be 6:43 in Brisbane, 7:06 in Sydney and 7:23 in Perth. Sydney is spot on its time zone, Brisbane 12 minutes ahead ahead of it, and Perth about 20 minutes behind isolar time.
Well I happen to like DS my girl friend goes to work at 5 30 am Monday to Friday comes home at 4 30 -5pm,DLS gives us more tie in the pool on a hot day or go out or just sit out side and talk eat dinner ect.
I think the shopping hours thing is unbelievable,the idiot on 6 pr Beamont apart from kissing Barnett backside when ever he interviews him,which is quite often as the rest of the State ministers are gibbering idiots or cant string two sentences together with a degree of intelligence.
So Barnett shows up for pretty well everything,Beaumont don’t want extended hours or DLS,I often wonder if Bunnings found a loophole that enabled them to see electiral good on Sunday what would happen,I live in Beechboro Frank which is not the far from you.
Why we cant just have 7 day trading with the proviso that if you don’t want to open you don’t have to,I have been shopping in Blacktown at 2 am,Perth fears change,it wants to be forever 1960,it wants to be a City but wants to be a smallish country town as well.
I think insular,slightly backwards,very frightened of change about sums it up for me,if I had my time over I would be back in Brisbane next week,but you make your bed you have to lay in it
I am tipping a narrow win for DLS. I would be curious to look at the Perth/regional sampling split, and also the sample of respondents 18-30. I would suggest that the second category is under-sampled. Wishin’ and hopin’ that Newspoll might throw us a bone with a bigger sample size…
[I am tipping a narrow win for DLS. I would be curious to look at the Perth/regional sampling split, and also the sample of respondents 18-30. I would suggest that the second category is under-sampled. Wishin’ and hopin’ that Newspoll might throw us a bone with a bigger sample size…]
But I wonder how many 18-30’s are actually on the Electoral Roll as they close at 5pm on Friday and the Yes Vote are worried that this demographic are thetype who are reluctant to enrol in the first place.
I am that sure you and I will join in encouraging all young persons to enroll by the closing date, Frank.
Hi Antony,
Of course I am referring to the MAXIMUM mean temperatures since it was ‘the hottest part of the day’ argument that was originally raised by an earlier blogger. You’re talking about events that effect the entire day – of which the presence or otherwise of DLS aint’ going to change Antony.
I don’t debate your data (I have already seen them); however you seem to fall into the same trap that you imply I that have. It’s about “people’s experience”. The facts, as you clearly state them, is that the max mean temperatures in Perth and Sydney are very similar. I made no reference to the humidity or sea breezes, but your data only indicates that slightly higher MEAN temperatures in Perth are mitigated by higher humidity in Sydney!! Like several of my friends, I have lived in both places and can attest to this! Yet I do not hear people clambering to abolish DLS in NSW/Sydney.
I am well aware of you ‘sand in the face’ point regarding the Freemantle Doctor – I lived on the coast for quite a while, however you’re assuming that the majority of Perth residents practically live on the beach through the day. Facts are they don’t, and those that do, typically go down through the day and leave (because of the Freemantle Doctor) in the afternoon. Again, the implementation or not of DLS will not change people going down to the beach throughout the day, and certainly isn’t going to stop The Doc blowing sand in people’s faces…! The same can be said of ‘the hottest part of the day’ argument..!
And of course the length of days varies in Perth to Sydney. However I can assure you that when DLS commences and finishes, the abrupt effect on the amount of daylight after the working day is very much noticeable (it is also of little comfort to me when I have had to cycle home from work in the twilight during the middle of summer when DSL was not in operation!).
At the end of the day, I find arguments for or against DSL over activities whose timing can be controlled by people (when they go for walks, water the lawns, go to the beach, milk the cows and so on), based on artefacts of the weather (wind, heat etc)that will exist irrespective of the presence of DLS to be just plane tiresome. I know that I can’t control when my employer wants me at work so the additional daylight at the end of the working day is appreciated. Even if it’s raining.
Jules
Antony, your 32 is the post of the thread I’d say. 🙂
According to your blog post a few weeks ago, there’s one thing that’s mostly ignored I think: DLS won last time in North and South metro (which include all the coastal suburbs), but narrowly failed in East Metro, which is further from the coast and therefore gets the sea breeze a bit later. I can’t be bothered right now, but an interesting thing might be to dig up the WAEC data, stick all the margins in every Perth booth on a map, and see if there’s a negative trend for the yes vote from west to east – throw a bit of spatial statistics at it. There are bits of Perth that are a good half hour’s drive from the beach even in calm traffic, like Midland, Armadale, Forrestfield etc… you’ll find going to the beach ain’t a huge part of people’s DLS decision out there.
Also, have a look at the votes in the SE of the state – places like Kalgoorlie and Esperance. As they’re in the east of the WA time zone, and far from the equator (which Kununurra ain’t), they get much earlier sunsets than Perth does. The solution some bored Nullarbor folk came up with was to make up their own time zone – anywhere on the Eyre Hwy between Caiguna roadhouse and the SA border is GMT 8:45, halfway between Perth and Adelaide. Just another of those strange things you see if you cross the Nullarbor by car (which every Aussie should do once in their life).
Julian, you’ve got two things wrong.
First, the average maximum temperatures in Perth and Sydney are not very similar. The difference is 4 degrees which you dismiss. But 4 degrees is the differnce between Hobart and Sydney in January, and is the differnce between Sydney in mid-spring and Sydney in January. A 4 degree average difference in maximum temperature is a noticable difference. The hottest average max temperature month in Brisbane is January at 29.4, so Perth is hotter than that in both January and February, though certainly less humid.
Second, the average maximum temperature is only one measure of temperature and takes no account of how long each day it is hot. Take the average 9am temperature. Over summer in Sydney they are 21.6/22.5/22.3, in Perth 23.8/24.8/24.9. So a 2-3 degree difference.
But the average 3pm temperatures are 22.5/23.7/23.8 in Sydney, Perth 26.7/28.9/29.5, so the average 3pm reading is 4-6 degrees higher than Sydney. And in all 3 months, the 3pm reading is less than 1 degree below the daily average maximum in Perth, and 2-3 degrees below the maximum in Sydney. So it is not only on average hotter, it is also hotter for longer in the day.
They’re not arguments for or against daylight saving, but what I am saying is that if people perceive a difference in climate in Perth which makes them less inclined to like daylight saving, they are actually feeling a real difference in climate, not an insignificant difference in average.
Bird of Paradox: Also note that in 1992, the yes vote was much higher the further north or south you got in Perth, but not as popular at the beach suburbs close to the Swan. It may be that people who have to slug it to and from work along the Kwinana and Mitchell freeways appreciate the early evening sunlight.