LOCAL Country Women’s Association (CWA) members are set to lobby for shorter daylight saving periods.
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The Wanthella group, taking in 10 local branches between Uralla, Walcha, Tamworth and Woolomin, want to take a motion to next year’s state conference calling to reduce the period by one month.
It was sparked by members of the Kootingal branch and group president, Betty-Anne White was confident it would be debated at state level in the CWA.
The motion must first be passed by the Wanthella group at its conference on October 31.
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Mrs White said daylight saving had a particular effect on farming families.
“It used to be only four months,” she said.
“So we’re trying to get it back and make it more livable for families especially on the land.”
She said the longer days were particularly taxing.
“Normally, they start at half-past-five in the morning, so really they’re up at half-past-four, and at night they’re out doing things on the farm and no one wants to come in because it’s so light,” she said.
“It makes a very long day and you’re eating your meals late at night.
“At the moment, it’s even worse with the drought.”
It used to be only four months. So we’re trying to get it back and make it more livable for families especially on the land.
- Wanthella group CWA president Betty-Anne White
Mrs White said the CWA had a good track record of lobbying for change and it was one of the factors which drew her into the organisation in the first place.
“The government listen to the CWA because they don’t put things up they don’t feel is going to help,” she said.
“I got involved with the CWA once I retired from work.
“I just loved what they did and … I liked the people and I liked what they stood for.”
She said drought had been the focus for CWA branches in the region for the last two years and said it could be hard for people to accept the support being rendered.
“They are very proud and they don’t want to ask,” she said.
“It is really a hard thing to do, you can do it with packs of food or say ‘right, you need hay, you can go to Valley Produce and we will cover that’.”
The Wanthella group covers CWA branches from Uralla, Bendemeer, Walcha, Niangala, Nundle, Tamworth, Woolomin and Somerton.