I'll be on my way to Canberra for the LAST STAND PROTEST RIDE on Monday, December 1.
This Victorian election is particularly important as various Australian Governments introduce and/or plan more antibike laws in the name of keeping us safe from evil doers. So this time I'm voting solely on motorcycle issues. There are plenty of good people voting on health, education, "nation building projects", and so on.
These antibike laws will effect other Australians so I'm studying the form. I'll look at all the candidates and what they stand for. Usually you get a run down in the local paper and there are websites. My Lower House electorate is BOX HILL. My Upper House electorate is Eastern Metropolitan.
Attorney General Robert Clark MP is pushing VLAD type laws for Victoria and the propaganda is already in the media about Victoria becoming the bikie state. Clark is a safe candidate for BOX HILL but he won't be getting my vote.
The Upper House is going to take a bit more thinking about.
One thing is sure. Premier Napthine has let the 175,000 Victorians who are licenced to ride down badly over the last four years. When he wanted into office he promised in writing and on TV to scrap the discriminatory TAC tax. He utterly failed to introduce even a significant part of the 64 recommendations from the 2012 Parliamentary Inquiry. In spite of the successful Hoddle Street bus lane trial he let VicRoads stall that road safety move right up to this election.
James Holgate from VicRoads gave Minister, Terry Mulder MP, bad information on traffic filtering which Mulder promptly blurted to the media. Three dead filtering? Rubbish. Napthine did nothing about it.
And the "advisor" to Mulder, Dr Alexandra Douglas promoted a lights-on law for this state so learners could not switch their headlights off. She did not even know that motorbikes have not been sold with light switches in OZ for 20 years! This kind of road safety advice to a Minister does not inspire confidence. Napthine did nothing.
We tried to meet with Napthine, Mulder and Clark repeatedly over the last four years but were ignored while political appointments to prop up sham consultation with the motorcycle community undermine the work legitimate rider representatives are doing.
I got a serious case of the irrits when I saw the following picture in the paper. Napthine on a scoot. The rider is probably out of shot trying to get the cutlery out of his/her back. If we want motorcycle safety to continue to improve and we want to protect our right to ride (at a reasonable cost), we have to get rid of this government and do something about the antimotorcycle hysteria running amok in VicRoads/TAC.
Damien
IRG
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