Normally a debate held in mid October, as Queensland parts ways with the rest of the east coast as they take on Daylight Savings Time, for some reason it has flared up in the middle of the January silly season.

It seems Brisbane Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner is responsible for the latest outbreak.

Councillor Schrinner is pushing for Queensland to trial daylight saving to help boost the economy, 25 years after residents voted against it.

His online poll got support for a new trial of daylight saving, following the previous trial from 1989 to 1992.

“A daylight savings trial for one or two seasons would give people an idea of how it would work in Queensland conditions,” Cr Schrinner told media in the south-east. “They could then decide if it’s something they want to stick with or keep the existing situation.”

When a referendum was held at the end of the 1992 trial, the proposal to keep daylight saving was narrowly defeated.

Since then petitions have regularly appeared in Queensland parliament almost always from the south-east corner.

And as a former south-east corner resident, I am sympathetic to their claims especially the ludicrous situation in the height of a Brisbane summer when it is bright at 4am and dark at 6.30pm.

Yet as someone now enjoying the best of what north-west Queensland can bring I cannot support the return of daylight saving.

For the south-east its absence is merely inconvenient, for the rest of us its adoption would be a disaster.

While researching for the North West Star’s 50 year anniversary last year I was struck by the white-hot anger of protesters in Mount Isa in 1992 arguing against the disruptions imposed by daylight saving.

I acknowledge there are business impacts of inconsistency with NSW and Victoria but what Queensland should be doing is to advocate to remove daylight saving from those states.

The eastern seaboard should always be on the same timezone. DB