Australian Capital Territory DST rule change?

[David Keegel]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 10:29:08PM +0000, Edwin Groothuis wrote:
> Edwin Groothuis < <edwin <at> mavetju.org> writes:
> 
> > Paul Eggert <eggert <at> CS.UCLA.EDU> writes:
> > 
> > > 
> > > A story in the July 3 ABC News (Australia) says that the Australian
> > > Capital Territory (ACT) will change its daylight-saving rules starting
> > > October, to bring it into line with Tasmania, New South Wales,
> > > Victoria, and South Australia.  Until now, I didn't know that the ACT
> > > had different rules from its neighbors.  I guess this means we'll need
> > > to add a new Zone Australia/Canberra to deal with the discrepancy?
> > 
> > Euhm... I think it was a matter of not being legislated yet, I don't recall
> > *anything* in the news about them not moving at the same time as NSW.
 
> So they changed it in reality, but the legislation had not caught up with it.

The short version is that there is a legislative change in ACT, but
it just confirms that the information in the TZ database is right.
 
The way the ACT legislation works is that they have a default rule for
when the summer time period will be, plus an option for the minister to 
declare a specific summer time period to override the default.

In October 2007, there was a minister's declaration for 2007/2008 to make
effective the new April end date for summer time (so ACT matched NSW, Vic,
SA and Tas).  In July 2008, ACT changed the default rule in legislation, to
match the decision made last year harmonising (and extending) summer time.

So ACT has been synchronised with NSW for the last few years, and should
remain so in future.

You can find the consolidated ACT legislation at:
	http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/stasta1972279/
	STANDARD TIME AND SUMMER TIME ACT 1972

Although when I looked this morning AustLII had the old version.

The 2008 amendment is:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/bill/stastab2008369/
http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/2008-24/default.asp

It was passed and "notified" (made official/effective) in July 2008.

There is an explanatory statement at:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/bill_es/stastab2008369/stastab2008369.html
This gives an overview of the history of what happened with ACT/NSW summer
time in the last year or so.  Have a look if you want more details.

David Keegel.