[tz] Australian time zone abbreviations

Shaun Bouckaert shaun.bouckaert at gmail.com
Fri Feb 10 00:48:02 UTC 2012


On 8 November 2011 15:55, Shaun Bouckaert <shaun.bouckaert at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Shaun Bouckaert <shaun.bouckaert at gmail.com>
> Date: 8 November 2011 15:31
> Subject: Re: [tz] Australian time zone abbreviations
> To: tz at iana.org
>
>
> On 8 November 2011 15:20, Shaun Bouckaert <shaun.bouckaert at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the research Edwin.
>>
>> Considering that the Federal Government, ABC, SBS, Bureau of
>> Meteorology, and several large national newspapers (with a few
>> anomolies) all use the same notation, I would say that a fairly well
>> established standard exists. Perhaps it is the ambiguity caused by the
>> absence of the 'A' that lead to organisations coming up with things
>> like ADST. Given the existing use of the Axxx acronyms, the fact that
>> the Federal Government itself has defined the timezones as such and
>> the fact that there are bugs in software due to the ambiguity with the
>> American timezones, and finally, the fact that the only arguments
>> against it have been that the states haven't defined them in
>> legislation (was this proposed as if it somehow invalidated the
>> federal governments opinion?), it's hard to argue against it. As for
>> the confusion you've encountered Greg, perhaps if the Axxx labels were
>> used, less people would be confused and not be making up acronyms like
>> ADST.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>
> I meant to also add, probably a significant amount of the current
> usage of EST is due to the fact that that is how it is currently
> expressed in the tzdata, as opposed to any conscious decision or style
> guide.
>
> Shaun

Whilst updating my address on my license after a recent move I found
an example of the Queensland Government using the abbreviation AEST
for the timezone in the TOS of the Queensland Transport website.

https://www.service.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/QtTerms.jsp

"Time is provided in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) as it
exists in Brisbane, Australia (GMT + 10:00). Please note that Brisbane
does not have daylight saving time during summer."

Considering both federal guidelines and state government usage agree,
I can see no reason for this not to be changed.

Shaun



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