With 2am Sunday, April 3 just around the corner, we’re approaching that most magical time of the year: the moment when we, as an almost-nation, celebrate daylight saving – or, as about half of our population recognise it, the beginning of the six months when the car’s clock is correct.

And it’s typically heralded by endless op-eds and social media screeds on the topic “Daylight Saving: Why Do We Even?” Of course, in 2016 there’s no knock-down case to be made for either side – and it’s precisely that magnificent irrelevance that makes it such a hot-button issue.

Australians are perfectly happy to shrug over boring, vital issues like asylum seekers, climate change and the effects of international trade agreements – but force our free citizenry to occasionally adjust their clocks? That, sir, will not stand.

In the great tradition of our proud federation, daylight saving is a bitterly divisive issue between our states and territories – second only to the century-plus march towards a national standardised train gauge (keep fighting the tyranny of the 1435mm standard, Mildura!).