There are more important issues facing Queensland than daylight saving.

The basis of daylight saving is how distance from the equator affects sunrise and sunset. So it is most useful for Tasmanians and has little practical application for northern Australians.

The Bureau of Meteorology has maps of Australia at 6 am and 6 pm on the longest and shortest days of the year.

A diagonal line runs across the continent from the northwest coast to the southeast coast. One side is still in daylight and one side is already in the dark. The further east you live from that line, the less you benefit from Eastern Summer Time – day light saving.

Gregory falls firmly in that category. Turns out, we don’t actually need to “save” daylight.

In fact our doctors tell us to reduce our risk of melanoma by avoiding the hottest part of the day, so for us daylight saving could be downright harmful. And we have a much greater part of our workforce working outdoors, compared to the southeast corner. It would certainly have a major impact on our quality of life.

With Queensland in debt by some $80 billion, a referendum on daylight saving should not be our priority. We need to focus on regional jobs and regional infrastructure – and we need to start doing something about them, now.