Australian Political & Infrastructure Discussion Thread

[Kenobot]

The inquiry found it was the responsibility of a NSW Health official who gave the passengers the all clear to go without any testing done let alone quarantine.

That would be the inquiry that the federal government refused to take part in?

Does it not concern you that there was no record taken by customs officials of who entered the country on that day, where they went and how to contact them? That should be standard procedure even when there isn’t a pandemic.

Well of course it does, but the problem was more to the fact that there was no quarantine or COVID testing done by NSW Health, which led to the Ruby Princess cluster.

[Amorosa-Coonarra Coasts]

I asked the host of this forum, and I'll ask you, just out of curiosity:

Where does your hate for Jordies come from?
And where is your info sourced from? SMH, IA, Daily Tellie, Herald Sun, Finny Rev, anything like that?
(I'm only curious)

Australian rePublic does not endorse my opinions, nor do I. We have differing opinions on #AusPolitics and that is completely fine.

My "hatred" of Friemdlyjordies doesn't come from anywhere other than looking at his working and seeing how pro-ALP it is. As I said earlier, I actually watch many of his videos to get differing perspectives on politics. I'm not going to make claims about FJ says without seeing it for myself. Where does your (for lack of a better word) worship of FJ come from?

I do it because I actually used to be a LNP supporter for most of my life. I was even against the gay marriage plebisite at one point for being 'strange'. I supported keeping Turnbull in government over ScoMo; I criticised and DEMONISED the Greens and Labor. I read a lot of Murdoch stuff like the Courier, and watched a lot of mainstream news.

What really made me stop and think was ScoMo buggering off to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis.
So over lockdown, I came across FriendlyJordies' video 'Scott Morrison gets REKT' and that's how it started. i had an appreciation of his style of content and some of the points he brought up.

However, I don't completely worship Jordan and think he can do no wrong; I am skeptical of his favouring of journalists and talkback radio hosts such as Sunrise's Kochie, Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, who are all journalists for the mainstream media in some way - the people he regularly points to as the 'dismantlers of democracy', his statements on NAIDOC week about the Djab Wurrung trees that even some of his viewers found unacceptable, and I can see that he is a big-time simp to Labor.

And it's not the only news source I watch. When I visit my grandparents, I do occasionally watch a bit of today or 7 afternoon news, I've been recommended to watch Paul Murray's show due to his interesting opinions, I've seen small scenes of the Bolt Report, and I watch the occasional spot of Isaac Butterfield. I've also got into honest govt. ads by TheJuiceMedia, who I find a lot funnier and more satirical than FJ. Not only do they criticise the Libs, they also criticise the ALP as well while criticising the LNP.

So that's where my thing for Shanks comes from. And some explanation as well.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

That would be the inquiry that the federal government refused to take part in?

Does it not concern you that there was no record taken by customs officials of who entered the country on that day, where they went and how to contact them? That should be standard procedure even when there isn’t a pandemic.

Well of course it does, but the problem was more to the fact that there was no quarantine or COVID testing done by NSW Health, which led to the Ruby Princess cluster.

Half of Australia could see the risk posed by the cruise ship. If the government had asked any of us "is the signature of the ship's doctor good enough assurance that no-one on the ship has Covid?" we'd have said fuck no.

So the Premier should have checked that testing and quarantine was going to happen ... every passenger, and any crew disembarking.

And since she plainly didn't, the Prime Minister (or one of the Ministers) should have checked that she was going to.

Redundant government processes are usually just a waste of resources. But they're a necessary safeguard when a Yes or a No can cause 600 infections in your country.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I supported keeping Turnbull in government over ScoMo; I criticised the Greens and Labor.

Yay. I liked Turnbull too. He didn't really keep his promise to "talk to the people like they're adults" but you can't really do that when some people will take offense that you're 'deliberately confusing them'. He did manage to keep a focus on policy and the government thinking on that. He also avoided alienating his own Cabinet, which I thought would be a problem (he's smart and tends to act superior).

In the end, it was only being too moderate for the coalition parties which did him in. "Climate change" be fighting words to the Nationals!

(You have an address in your signature. I've literally never seen that before?)

[Amorosa-Coonarra Coasts]

I supported keeping Turnbull in government over ScoMo; I criticised the Greens and Labor.

Yay. I liked Turnbull too. He didn't really keep his promise to "talk to the people like they're adults" but you can't really do that when some people will take offense that you're 'deliberately confusing them'. He did manage to keep a focus on policy and the government thinking on that. He also avoided alienating his own Cabinet, which I thought would be a problem (he's smart and tends to act superior).

In the end, it was only being too moderate for the coalition parties which did him in. "Climate change" be fighting words to the Nationals!

(You have an address in your signature. I've literally never seen that before?)

.
Although I'm sort of mixed on Tony, Malcolm and Scott, Malcolm's probably the most...okay....out of all of them. At least in comparison to the leaders Australia's had.

george Brandis (was) and Peter Dutton are still two scary members of the Coalition though

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Yay. I liked Turnbull too. He didn't really keep his promise to "talk to the people like they're adults" but you can't really do that when some people will take offense that you're 'deliberately confusing them'. He did manage to keep a focus on policy and the government thinking on that. He also avoided alienating his own Cabinet, which I thought would be a problem (he's smart and tends to act superior).

In the end, it was only being too moderate for the coalition parties which did him in. "Climate change" be fighting words to the Nationals!

(You have an address in your signature. I've literally never seen that before?)

.
Although I'm sort of mixed on Tony, Malcolm and Scott, Malcolm's probably the most...okay....out of all of them. At least in comparison to the leaders Australia's had.

george Brandis (was) and Peter Dutton are still two scary members of the Coalition though

1. Malcolm Turnbull
2.
3. Scott Morrison
4.
5. John Howard
6.
7.
8. Tony Abbott
9. Peter Dutton

I remember the other Malcolm: Fraser. He made the mistake of launching his election campaign at my University. When I found out, I called my leftie student friends and tried to get them to come protest with me. "Having dinner, you're on your own". So I made up some drivel about being a member of the Liberal Club (I did know some of their names), which somehow got me into the auditorium despite not being a Liberal Party member (I was passionate I guess, actually I may have technically joined the Liberal Party.) I sat way way up the back. And when the cheering died down and Malcolm was into his speech, I started heckling him. The guy next to me scolded me, then some others and I swear they'd have mugged me except TV cameras swung my way. Malcolm made the mistake of engaging me, though he only said something like "I can't actually hear you" but I took it as basically giving me the stage. I yelled about all sorts of stuff and didn't stop even as I was being carried out by the arms, kicking the air. The auditorium had the entrance right in the middle of the audience, so they had to carry me half way to the stage where Malcolm could definitely hear me as I finished up my rant on the subject of US Bases.

Well it got me on TV though one of my lefty friends called me "ridiculous". I hung around out the front hoping to get another word in, but the audience started to come out before Malcolm (who probably used another entrance anyway) and those people didn't seem to like me very much so I left. Malcolm lost that election (ie it was his last) and I like to think I did my bit!

Honorable mention to Peter Costello. Only Treasurer, never made PM unfortunately. I just liked the guy, despite Liberal Treasurer bringing out the worst in anyone!

[Borderlands of Rojava]

What do you guys even debate about in Aussie politics? I've become so desensitized by the shitshow of american politics that politics elsewhere just seems dull.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

What do you guys even debate about in Aussie politics? I've become so desensitized by the shitshow of american politics that politics elsewhere just seems dull.

The last few days it's been the Special Air Service in Afghanistan, killing civilians as some kind of sick initiation ritual for the new chums.

[Australian rePublic]

Nothing that happened was the fault of Scomo though. He handled this excellently. The only things that I would have done differently if I were him was closing international borders earlier.

Morrison spent a year as Minister for Immigration under Abbott. He launched Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013.

Yet when not one but two huge ships sailed into Australian ports, it didn't even cross his mind to Stop The Boats. No, the Premiers can handle that. Or not. Hmm.

Fair enough

Other than that, I really can't find much else to criticise. Yes, Victoria and South Australia both had outbreaks, however, these were caused by poor state leadership which had nothing to do with the federal governmeny. NSW also had a second spew of the virus, whicu was also the fault of our government for not closing the borders to Victoria earlier, none of this was the fault of Scomo. People point to New Zealand and say that we should have done what they did, but keep in mind that New Zealand is a far away country with 4 million and no states to argue with.

New Zealand has advantages we do not, and I've never argued otherwise. The size of their population is irrelevant, rather they only have one big city. They don't have states, they do have rivalry between North and South Islands though. Also they have the Maori, who really don't like government telling them what to do.

The North and South Islands may have rivalries, but Adern has total power over both. Irreleveant.

The national governmnet calls all the shots. And yet, they still had 2 outbreaks after the intial outbreak, totalling a total of 3 outbreaks. Meanwhile, in Australia, every state has had a maximum of two outbreaks, without disembowling our economy in the process.

New Zealand has managed better than we have. 343 cases per million for NZ. 1090 cases per million for Aus.

A cross comparison with total number of tests shows either NZ or Fiji as the best in the world. But never mind, we're up next. Because they got onto it early Taiwan have the best rate, but I always urge people not to compare their country with Taiwan, because we all lost the option to be like them back in ... January actually. Small island nations, and Iceland which isn't so small, also have good figures. Really what it shows is that very small population means very few visitors or returning citizens, in a given week or month, and luck takes it from there. New Zealand isn't that small, also they (had) lots of population exchange with Australia and tourism from everywhere.

I do think being small-ish probably helps in that the people are more responsive to what their national governments asks of them. Kinda like a state but with without having to share power with a government above that.

And what are our numbers like when we disregard Victoria?

I therefore implore the same question- what do you consider that Scomo did wrong? The rest of the world is looking at us with envy.

Not if they're aware of New Zealand, Iceland or Taiwan, they're not.

Western Australia had no second outbreak, neither did Queensland, the Northern Territory, Tasmania nor the ACT. New South Wales' second outbreak was brought under control, and South Australia is bringing their second outbreak under control as we speak. Victoria, an ALP state, was the only state who had a significant second outbreak, which was due to the incompetence of the state, not the federal government.

They goofed with the security guards, but they tried postcode lockdowns (afaik, no government anywhere has tried locking down that way) and those worked. How about you show how the Victorian government's management actually caused the outbreak?

"It didn't happen anywhere else" won't cut it when there are only 5 states and 2 territories. You'd need more AND another outbreak state, to establish a pattern. To me it looks like accident: virus doing what viruses do, taking opportunities no-one realized were there.

How bout all the giant quarantine fuck ups that Dan Andrews admitted to?

I'll therefore ask again, with true sincerity, what should have Scomo done?

He should have stopped the boats. He should have turned on his TV and seen multiple cruise liners with covid epidemics aboard, noticed the preponderance of Princess Lines which mainly sails from Australia, and that two of that line were due to dock in Australian ports (Sydney and Perth). He should have made sure the Premiers were exercising due caution and offered them Federal support.

You know the first thing all those passengers did after setting foot on dry land? The went through Federal Customs.

Fair enough

"Everybody knows what he should have done" is not an answer. I genuinely don't know what Scomo should have done differently, and if you're so sure about what he should have done differently, why didn't you give a proper response instead of "everyone knows what he should have done better". Well if everyone knows, then why can't you express it for us dumbshits like me

Calm down, eh? I've told you he should have stopped the boats, he should also within a week provided JobKeeper to recently hired casual workers. He seems a bit sorry about this.

Now why are you so critical of Andrews but willing to give Berejiklian the benefit of the doubt, when it was her government that did nothing about a bunch of sick people disembarking the Ruby Princess and wandering off, catching public transport and planes?

I am nothing but critical of Berejiklian. Aren't you the one who criticiesd me for being to critical of her? She fucked up bad at the beginning, I will admit to that. However, afterwards, she really got her shit together and now look where we are. As for Dan Andrews, facts do not lie. Victoria had the biggest cluster in the country. At least Andrews and Berejiklian are good people. The one that I don't like is Palaszczuk. She's just a terrible person

[Albrenia]

That a few other countries have done better doesn't mean we have not done pretty darn well.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

New Zealand has advantages we do not, and I've never argued otherwise. The size of their population is irrelevant, rather they only have one big city. They don't have states, they do have rivalry between North and South Islands though. Also they have the Maori, who really don't like government telling them what to do.

The North and South Islands may have rivalries, but Adern has total power over both. Irreleveant.

If that's irrelevant, then how about you explain how having States is a disadvantage for Australia?

New Zealand has managed better than we have. 343 cases per million for NZ. 1090 cases per million for Aus.

And what are our numbers like when we disregard Victoria?

Irrelevant. When you say "we" you mean either Australia or New South Wales. Just pretending Victoria doesn't count would make as much sense as leaving Waitematā out of the New Zealand figures.

Inter-state rivalry never leads anywhere good. If we say "except for Victoria" then Queensland will say "except for Victoria and New South Wales" and Western Australia will say "except for the East Coast" and now we're defining Australia as 22% of its real population.

[Australian rePublic]

The North and South Islands may have rivalries, but Adern has total power over both. Irreleveant.

If that's irrelevant, then how about you explain how having States is a disadvantage for Australia?

States are not a disadvantage. I am very pro-federation and very pro-states rights. However, this means that Scomo doesn't full control over Australia, as the states have power, which is a good thing. This is contrast to New Zealand, where Adern has full power over the entirity of the North and South Islands. New South Wales can make laws that the federal government has no control over. Tasmania can make laws that the federal government has no control over. Western Australia can make laws can which the federal government has no control over. In most circumstances, this is a good thing, as it prevents anyone government from becoming too powerful. Further, the federal government is limited with the laws they can make laws with regards to Tasmania
The federal government is limited with the laws it can make with regards to South Australia. Etc. Once again, this is a good thing, because it limits the power of any one government. However, during time of disaster, such as a pandemic, this makes it difficult to have one centralised, national approach.

Contrast this to New Zealand where the national government makes laws with regards to all of New Zealand. There is no North Island government which can make laws out of the control of the national government and there is no South Island government which can make laws out of the control of the national government. Similarly, there is a huge rivalry between northern Tasmania and southern Tasmania, which is irrelevant, as the Tasmanian state government has the power over the entire island, excluding federal laws

New Zealand has managed better than we have. 343 cases per million for NZ. 1090 cases per million for Aus.

And what are our numbers like when we disregard Victoria?

Irrelevant. When you say "we" you mean either Australia or New South Wales. Just pretending Victoria doesn't count would make as much sense as leaving Waitematā out of the New Zealand figures.

Inter-state rivalry never leads anywhere good. If we say "except for Victoria" then Queensland will say "except for Victoria and New South Wales" and Western Australia will say "except for the East Coast" and now we're defining Australia as 22% of its real population.[/quote]
No. The argument is who fucked up, Dan Andrews or Scomo. In order to determine that, you have to compare Victoria's figures to the rest of Australia. If you disregard Victoria, Australia has performed very well, suggesting that Daniel Andrews, not Scomo, was the one who fucked up. My goodness, this is circular...

[Kenobot]

Well of course it does, but the problem was more to the fact that there was no quarantine or COVID testing done by NSW Health, which led to the Ruby Princess cluster.

Half of Australia could see the risk posed by the cruise ship. If the government had asked any of us "is the signature of the ship's doctor good enough assurance that no-one on the ship has Covid?" we'd have said fuck no.

So the Premier should have checked that testing and quarantine was going to happen ... every passenger, and any crew disembarking.

And since she plainly didn't, the Prime Minister (or one of the Ministers) should have checked that she was going to.

Redundant government processes are usually just a waste of resources. But they're a necessary safeguard when a Yes or a No can cause 600 infections in your country.

Gladys likely had faith that the bureaucracy would just do their job. Ministers are not supposed to be micro-managers. Obviously there should have been more oversight but I doubt it would have prevented what happened in the end. I think it's a bit of beatup to blame Gladys and the Feds for this. It's NSW Health and the ship's doctor that stuffed up majorly.

I supported keeping Turnbull in government over ScoMo; I criticised the Greens and Labor.

Yay. I liked Turnbull too. He didn't really keep his promise to "talk to the people like they're adults" but you can't really do that when some people will take offense that you're 'deliberately confusing them'. He did manage to keep a focus on policy and the government thinking on that. He also avoided alienating his own Cabinet, which I thought would be a problem (he's smart and tends to act superior).

In the end, it was only being too moderate for the coalition parties which did him in. "Climate change" be fighting words to the Nationals!

(You have an address in your signature. I've literally never seen that before?)

Turnbull's downfall was that he was a rallying point and icon for moderates and the hard right knew that if Turnbull continued on as leader as the first PM since Howard to serve a full term, that the shackles the right imposed on him would continue to slowly wear away as the party itself moved back towards the centre. That and Dutton's ambitions. He's not even actually that hard right IRL; just puts on the persona. Actually a pretty pleasant guy. It's a shame that he was co-opted by the right to do what he did.

Yay. I liked Turnbull too. He didn't really keep his promise to "talk to the people like they're adults" but you can't really do that when some people will take offense that you're 'deliberately confusing them'. He did manage to keep a focus on policy and the government thinking on that. He also avoided alienating his own Cabinet, which I thought would be a problem (he's smart and tends to act superior).

In the end, it was only being too moderate for the coalition parties which did him in. "Climate change" be fighting words to the Nationals!

(You have an address in your signature. I've literally never seen that before?)

.
Although I'm sort of mixed on Tony, Malcolm and Scott, Malcolm's probably the most...okay....out of all of them. At least in comparison to the leaders Australia's had.

george Brandis (was) and Peter Dutton are still two scary members of the Coalition though

Brandis scary? Brandis is one of the moderates! Boy if what went down in Canberra was public knowledge.... I suspect people's views on quite a number of politicians might change and not necessarily for the worse!

[Australian rePublic]

Half of Australia could see the risk posed by the cruise ship. If the government had asked any of us "is the signature of the ship's doctor good enough assurance that no-one on the ship has Covid?" we'd have said fuck no.

So the Premier should have checked that testing and quarantine was going to happen ... every passenger, and any crew disembarking.

And since she plainly didn't, the Prime Minister (or one of the Ministers) should have checked that she was going to.

Redundant government processes are usually just a waste of resources. But they're a necessary safeguard when a Yes or a No can cause 600 infections in your country.

Gladys likely had faith that the bureaucracy would just do their job. Ministers are not supposed to be micro-managers. Obviously there should have been more oversight but I doubt it would have prevented what happened in the end. I think it's a bit of beatup to blame Gladys and the Feds for this. It's NSW Health and the ship's doctor that stuffed up majorly.

IIRC, it was actually malice, not incompitance, from the ship's perspective. But not from the ship crew, rather from the company who owned it. The ship crew was just following orders

[Australian rePublic]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

[Albrenia]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

As someone who does not live in WA, it just sounds like a generally bad idea.

[Australian rePublic]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

As someone who does not live in WA, it just sounds like a generally bad idea.

Why?

[Albrenia]

As someone who does not live in WA, it just sounds like a generally bad idea.

Why?

Border issues would likely be bad for both economies, along with the mundane issues of the whole shebang you already mentioned of them having to form their own full government, military and currency. Would weaken both areas in relation to the rest of the world when we need all the strength we have to present a united front against the various hazards of the world.

Would also make our maps look way uglier, and break us up into smaller nations sharing a big island rather than one big island.

[Australian rePublic]

Why?

Border issues would likely be bad for both economies, along with the mundane issues of the whole shebang you already mentioned of them having to form their own full government, military and currency. Would weaken both areas in relation to the rest of the world when we need all the strength we have to present a united front against the various hazards of the world.

Would also make our maps look way uglier, and break us up into smaller nations sharing a big island rather than one big island.

True!

[Imperial isa]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

Wa all so has the same group of people who keep bring up daylight savings, who should really just move east if they like it some much,seeing WA voted No a number of times on it.

[Dazchan]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.

That being said, if the majority of Western Australians wanted to secede, I’d support it. The right of self determination and all that.

On a not-really-related-but-this-topic-reminded-me-of-it note, the Principality of Hutt River announced a few weeks ago that it was going to rejoin Australia. I’m pretty disappointed by that, because visiting Hutt River has been on my to-do list for ages and I never got there.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

What do you guys make of Western Australia secessionism? Apparently, WA never wanted to be part of the federation and only begrudgingly joined more or less because they were promised a train line from Sydney to Perth, and have been regretting it ever since. There was a major referendum for it in the 1930's. Apparently, these days, it only exists on the frindges, but whenever the GST disbenefits WA, you'll occasionally get a group of people who demand sucession, but quickly get scared away when they're told it'll mean that they need their own currency, and military and border control and foreign relations

Wa all so has the same group of people who keep bring up daylight savings, who should really just move east if they like it some much,seeing WA voted No a number of times on it.

Daylight savings is an excellent idea for people who live far from the equator. But between the lines of the tropics, days are always long enough and there's no point having DS. In fact it's more of a nuisance.

The Tropic of Cancer runs through Queensland and the NT, so they have a good reason not to use DS. For WA it's not so clear cut. Most of the city-dwellers who have to live by the clock live in or around Perth, so you'd think they would get more consideration than the primarily Aboriginal population of the North of the state. But maybe it's that: community by community and town by town, it would be random who would observe "city time" and who wouldn't. That would be a shemozzle.

[Amorosa-Coonarra Coasts]

I dont really care about daylight savings that much; I never really understood what the stink was all about.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I dont really care about daylight savings that much; I never really understood what the stink was all about.

Apparently there are more road accidents the day after the clock changes. But that's worth it to the far more numerous people who make use of an extra hour of sunlight after work.

It's a kludge really. Actually shops and employers should gradually change their hours from summer to winter, but that would require too much co-ordination between them all. A smooth change would be preferable, but there's still people with old watches which wouldn't automatically update. For that matter, all the OS's would have to understand a local time which changed slightly every day.

[Lura]

Wa all so has the same group of people who keep bring up daylight savings, who should really just move east if they like it some much,seeing WA voted No a number of times on it.

Daylight savings is an excellent idea for people who live far from the equator. But between the lines of the tropics, days are always long enough and there's no point having DS. In fact it's more of a nuisance.

The Tropic of Cancer runs through Queensland and the NT, so they have a good reason not to use DS. For WA it's not so clear cut. Most of the city-dwellers who have to live by the clock live in or around Perth, so you'd think they would get more consideration than the primarily Aboriginal population of the North of the state. But maybe it's that: community by community and town by town, it would be random who would observe "city time" and who wouldn't. That would be a shemozzle.

Is it though? Finland, which is about as far from the equator as you can get, is a major supporter of dumping daylight saving time in the EU. Also the Tropic of Capricorn certainly runs through WA too, though admittedly WA's only population centre of Perth is reasonably far south.

Daylight savings bothers me simply for the fact it makes time zones so needlessly complex. Why the heck does Australia have more time zones than the contiguous United States in summer? Why is Queensland behind SA in summer when it is further east? I just can't understand what benefit it has for anyone or anything.

On a related note, why is ACST and ACDT on a messed up +9:30 / +10:30 offset? I hate trying to convert literally anything that isn't AEST/AEDT to ACST/ACDT because of the bloody half hour that makes no sense. I've been told that it's so SA is closer to AEST/AEDT but SA is almost perfectly in the +9 longitude band and the logic is flimsy IMO.