Daylight saving time could become permanent in the US. What’s the situation in Australia?

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed with an overwhelming majority: 308 votes in favour and 117 against, and politicians from both parties voted for the bill.

However, it still has to pass the US Senate.

If the bill becomes law, it will eliminate the need for states to change the clock twice a year.

Are there any bids to change daylight saving time in Australia?

There are no proposals to alter how daylight saving works in Australia, at least in an official sense.

Still, you don’t have to look too hard online to find a petition about changing daylight saving time rules, but many fail to attract a significant number of signatures.

Whether Queensland should observe daylight saving time is a long-running debate, but there doesn’t appear to be any official moves to make changes on that front.

There have been multiple efforts by some MPs in New South Wales to shorten the window of daylight saving time by two months in recent years.

But the latest parliamentary petition doesn’t appear to have made much difference, with the NSW government setting its daylight saving dates for next year, according to the norm.

What is the daylight saving situation in Australia?

Daylight saving time hasn’t started in Australia yet; that’s not for another few months.

We’re still in standard time, meaning most of the country falls into one of three time zones:

• AEST: ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
• ACST: Northern Territory and South Australia
• AWST: Western Australia

But once daylight saving time kicks in, a few more time zones are added to the mix. Here are the main ones:

• AEDT: ACT, New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria
• AEST: Queensland
• ACDT: South Australia
• ACST: Northern Territory
• AWST: Western Australia

But there are a few exemptions from these time zones.

For example, Broken Hill operates on South Australia’s time zone despite technically being a NSW town.

Then there’s Lord Howe Island, which is about a two-hour flight off the coast of NSW and has its own time zone.

Lord Howe Standard Time is 30 minutes ahead of AEST, adding an extra 30 minutes when daylight saving time kicks in.

And don’t forget about the little pocket at the bottom of WA, which is 45 minutes ahead of the rest of the state.

During daylight saving time, it’s 1 hour 45 minutes behind SA.

It’s called the Central Western Time Zone, but is more affectionately known as “Eucla Time“.

The zone covers a small area of the Nullarbor that stretches from the eastern side of Caiguna to Border Village and is marked in purple on this map:

Why doesn’t the whole country observe daylight saving time?

Because it’s up to each state and territory to decide whether to observe daylight saving time.

It’s a quirk of Federation, but also reflects that Australia is a vast space, with the south experiencing very different conditions to the north.

And different conditions call for different policies.

For example, a 2010 paper by Queensland parliamentary librarian Mary Westcott said one of the major arguments against daylight saving time from its opponents was that the state’s climate was too hot for it to be effective. 

The argument is that afternoon leisure time would be spent in the heat of the day, with people more likely to stay indoors rather than gardening, having picnics or playing sport.

However, the afternoon heat is less of an issue in places like Tasmania, where people could comfortably spend more time outside after work or school.

When does daylight saving time start in Australia?

This year, daylight saving time starts on Sunday, October 4.

US to ‘ditch the switch’

The argument for the bill now before the US Senate, is to do away with the disruption caused by a twice-yearly time change.

This happens once in the US spring time, with clocks in most states (Hawaii and Arizona don’t observe daylight saving time) moving forward by one hour.

Then, in autumn, the clocks go backward by an hour.

The idea to abolish the need to change the clocks isn’t new, but US President Donald Trump has been pushing the idea.

Back in December 2024, he said changing the clocks twice a year was “inconvenient, and very costly to our nation”.

In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted in favour of the Sunshine Protection Act with 48 votes in support and one against.

“Locking the clock all year long would have positive impacts on sleep schedules, energy conservation, motor vehicle safety, and our economy,” Energy and Commerce Committee chair Brett Guthrie said.

Supporters of the measure say changing the clocks twice a year causes disruptions to people’s sleep, more workplace injuries and more car crashes.

A 2025 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found the majority of Americans were against a system that required two clock changes a year.

The poll showed 47 per cent of adults didn’t like the biannual change, 40 per cent were neutral, and only 12 per cent supported it.

Where should the ‘extra hour’ go?

The poll found 56 per cent of people wanted daylight saving time to be the constant, meaning less light in the morning and more light in the evening.

But 42 per cent wanted it the other way round.

They wanted standard time to be the norm, meaning more light in the morning and less light in the evening.

The act would make daylight saving time permanent, with supporters saying the brighter evenings would spur more economic activity in winter and give families more evening to spend outdoors.

But an alternative bill, called the Sunshine for Our Kids Act, would see standard time as the default and allow states to opt into daylight saving time.

Supporters of that bill argue more light in the morning would better align with circadian rhythms.

They say daylight saving time would lead to darker, potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses, and parents will be driving to work in darkness.