DAYLIGHT SAVING IN NEW SOUTH WALES: A CASE OF EMOTIVE SYMBOLIC POLITICS?

Abstract

Abstract: This is a case study of the campaign over daylight saving in New South Wales from the mid‐1960s. The period leading to the legislation making daylight saving a permanent feature in 1972 was marked by the involvement of various groups, media campaigns and inter‐governmental negotiations. After the legislation was passed, the character of the campaign changed. Conflict was confined mainly to the rural sector, where large‐scale citizen involvement occurred. Many anti‐daylight saving bodies were created and a petition of over 40,000 names protesting about daylight saving was presented to the Premier. The Country Party was pressured sufficiently to promise during 1973, 1974 and 1975 that a referendum would be held, and this was achieved in May 1976. The results of the poll showed majority approval lay with continuing daylight saving. Until 1972 the policy area appeared to correspond to Theodore Lowi's “regulative” category, but from 1972 the policy arena altered to one which may be viewed in terms of T. Alexander Smith's “emotive symbolic” policy. The article assesses the Smith concept and its usefulness in explaining the issue of daylight saving as an example of intense community debate.