IRG REQUEST TO MEET VIC PREMIER

On 9 December 2013 22:20, Dale Maggs <dale.maggs@bigpond.com> wrote:

Dear Premier 

I have been waiting patiently for a reply from your Diary team to my first request to meet with you to discus Victorian motorcycle & scooter issues. 

It's been several months and many emails & phone calls but your diary manager Ms Julie Reid has not been able to find a date. 

I organised a protest at our Parliament. we asked you to attend! 

I ask you once again please take the time to meet with our group. 

I have attached a discussion paper for your viewing. 

Please take the time to pick up the phone & let's get the issues on the table! 

I have made this request public as my prior requests seems to have fallen on deaf ears. 

Motorcycle & Scooter riders Vote!

Regards

Dale Robert Maggs

Mob 0432776458

@convictstock

Independent Riders Group 

On 30/12/2013, at 10:06 AM, Emma DAgostino wrote:

Hi Dale,

Any progress on this front?

Kind regards,

Emma

Emma D'Agostino

Journalist

The Wimmera Mail-Times

92 Wilson Street, Horsham

On 30/12/2013, at 10:35 AM, Dale Maggs wrote:

Absolutely none. Several talks on the phone since 24th June 2013. Several email exchanges from Julie Reid Diary manager stating she is still looking to set a date!

Really poor form IMO.

Dale Robert Maggs 

Mob 0432776458

@convictstock

Independent Riders Group

From: damian Codognotto [mailto:d.codognotto.oam@bigpond.com]
Sent: Monday, 30 December 2013 2:13 PM
To: Dale Maggs
Cc: Emma DAgostino
Subject: IRG REQUEST TO MEET NAPTHINE 1

Dale Maggs

Spokesman

The Independent Riders' Group

Western Victoria

Keep after him Dale.

Napthine made definite, on-the-record promises to us. One was that the discriminatory TAC tax be abolished. He tabled our petition against the TAC tax in state parliament. He put out a media release promising to abolish the TAC tax if the Libs/Nats got in to government.

The unfair TAC antibike tax came in under the previous Labor government. It was a road safety experiment that failed.

In opposition X Premier Bailieu did a story with the Wangaratta Chronicle(?) promising to abolish the TAC tax. 

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry (2012) into motorcycle & scooter safety studied the TAC tax and recommended it be abolished. 

From Motorcycle Trader magazine - February 2013.

Recommendation 25 is quite clear.

Shadow Roads Minister, Luke Donnellan MP, raised the Premier's media release promising the tax would be abolished in state parliament in 2013.

There is no excuse for keeping the TAC antibike tax. Who runs this business? The state government or the TAC/VicRoads. 

The TAC tax is negative to road safety.

The TAC tax makes motorcycle & scooter riding more expensive by about $75 a year for most bikes. From memory bikes under 125cc are exempt because the postie's union kicked up a fuss. People with more than one registered bike are required to pay for only one machine but this fact is not widely known and getting a refund is very hard work. Obviously people who can afford more than one bike get an advantage.

The TAC tax means $75 a year less to spend on protective clothing and better equipment and servicing. The very people who are riding to save time and money - students, low-income earners, young families - are the ones the Napthine Government is putting at risk with this punative tax. 

While the TAC tax is in place there will be no real budget for motorcycle & scooter safety and research as there is for bicyclists. Bicyclists pay no TAC insurance fee or the TAC tax. Motorcycle & scooter riders pay as much as a car including the tax. But the tax bill is not itemised. Vicroads collects the tax for TAC but it does not want the average rider to know about this blatant rip off. The tax is hidden on the registration papers as "**Includes charge for motorcycle safety initiatives".

Hiding the TAC tax like this may be legal  ......  just,  but I do not believe it's ethical.  I doubt it would be acceptable billing in the real world of business.  Hidden charges would,  I think,  be seen as a rip off.  And, the GST on the tax is a tax on a tax isn't it?  How fair is that?

$614.10  for a 750 cc bike is way too much. Car driver error causes most road casualties so their third party insurance (TAC charge) should cover that. Safer road users should get no claim discounts as they do in commercial insurance. I've been riding since 1967 and I've never made a TAC claim.

Motorcycle & scooter riders more than pay their way on Victoria's roads. Recreational riders spend an estimated $750 million each year on touring. Most of that is spent in regional areas. Phillip Island gets an estimated boost of $60 million from the motorcycle GP. Mildura hosted the Ulysses Club AGM a couple of years ago. Riders contributed some $4 million to that city and surrounds. Reference - Mildura tourism authority - Tourism Victoria website. And this does not include the tens of millions spent by off-road riders every year. Then there's farm bikes ....

Motorcycles & scooters are here to stay. The federal report on Australian cities makes that point very clear. Numbers have been increasing for decades and will continue to increase. In congested cities bikes make sense. They save the rider time and money. They reduce pollution, traffic congestion and do little infrastructure damage. They also free up road space and parking bays for people who have to use a car. As commuters, motorbikes & scooters carry more further than bicycles. The VicRoads/TAC antibike policies do no service to the people of this state.

2014 is an election year in Victoria. The Napthine Government's hold on power is not that great. The IRG will be campaigning in marginal seats and one of the big issues will be abolishing the discriminatory TAC tax.

Damien Codognotto OAM

Spokesman

The Independent Riders' Group

Melbourne

Damien,

The situation appears to be that the “whole of government response”, which included response from the TAC, VicRoads, VicPol, et al, is that that have decided to adopt some of the recommendations from the Parliamentary Inquiry into Motorcycle Safety, some in part, some not at all and some “in principle”  which appears to mean not at all (eg Recommendation 59 relating to Filtering).

It is expected that their word is final and that they are allowed not to adopt any of the recommendations from the Parliamentary Road Safety Committee, this is of course a ridiculous situation, what’s the point of having a Road safety Committee if the whole of Government response is to ignore most of what is recommends and this after a public inquiry.

Our only course of action is to protest and make it known we do not agree with the whole of government response and are entitled to voice this opinion, because the recommendations are sound and were made to provide the best outcome for all road users.

Regards

Steve. 

Thanks Steve.

And give the government problems at the ballot box.

 

What makes me angry is that we made submissions to the parliamentary inquiry in good faith.

The TAC, VicRoads and police made submissions. Then the unholy trinity were allowed to evaluate what we put in, fine tune their work to make life as hard as possible for riders then resubmit.  Then VicRoads/TAC/police write the "whole of government response" and use the MPs like ventriloquist dolls. If they had any honour at all they'd call it the Yes Minister response.

2014 is going to be a busy year.

Damien Codognotto OAM
Spokesman
Independent Riders' Group
Melbourne