KEY POINTS:
The daylight saving petition of Nelson City councillor Mark Holmes and United Future leader Peter Dunne had more than 35,000 signatures when it closed at the weekend.
In Auckland yesterday, Mr Dunne said that as he moved around the city people had stopped him and said it was a great idea to provide three extra weeks of extended daylight in the evenings.
The premise of the petition is to have daylight saving begin on the last Sunday in September and end on the first Sunday in April.
Prime Minister Helen Clark today said she believe daylight savings could be "stretched a bit" at the end of summer.
"I think the way our weather and seasons have moved around we are finding that at the start of the so-called summer it's not the best, but we've just seen the most glorious Indian summer lasting well through into March and daylight savings ends in about a week's time," she said on Newstalk ZB.
"There's obviously quite a lot of public support mounting for a change."
She said she supported extending daylight savings at the end of summer rather than bringing the start date forward.
Miss Clark said she was also happy for there to be a debate on shifting the school summer holidays to February, but said it would be practically very difficult to implement.
Mr Dunne also said there seemed to be a preference to adding on to the end of daylight saving, which finishes on Sunday, rather than have it begin a week earlier than it is now.
"I think people want a daylight saving period that better corresponds to what we know summer to be, particularly in March with the late summers we've been having."
Mr Dunne said he was dismayed to hear that Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker was considering official reports and did not think there would be any change this year.
"He has to go out of the House and listen to people and get on with the job. There is no significant opposition and there is a groundswell of people who want to see it happen soon.
"It takes the minister to be convinced that there is a case for change, he then simply needs to sign a regulation, so I can't see why the extension can't be immediate."
Mr Holmes said yesterday he hoped that at least the change to move forward daylight saving into spring could be achieved this year.
He said some people had reservations about moving it into September saying that the weather was not as nice in the spring as it was in autumn.
"I'm aiming at the actual amount of available daylight - it's not a weather thing. The handful of people against an extension [would be] morning people who get up early and do their exercises."
