Re: GMT -> UTC in Australia

From: Steve Allen <sla_at_ucolick.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 23:02:14 -0800

On Tue 2005-02-22T18:27:36 -0800, Steve Allen hath writ:
> Australia has decided to redefine its legal time scale.

The bill was introduced today.
Details of Bill 11 are found here.
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/isys/isyswebext.exe?op=get&uri=/isysquery/irl66ce/1/doc/#hit1

The text of the bill is here
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/de842061017f029eca256fb000169179/$FILE/b04-133-16-p01.pdf

It defines UTC as being determined by the BIPM.
Nowhere is the ITU-R mentioned.

The BIPM says UTC is based on TAI, which is acknowledged to be their
own responsibiliy, and leaps as determined by the IERS.

So it remains unclear who ultimately controls the fate of civil time
in New South Wales. But the explicit mention of the CGPM endorsement
from 1975 could be interpreted to mean that NSW expects that UTC
should conform to mean solar time, and thus it should have leaps.

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla_at_ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046     http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
PGP: 1024/E46978C5   F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E    49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93

Received on Wed Feb 23 2005 - 23:02:47 PST