Victorian Roads Minister Luke Donnellan says that people who think wire rope barriers on our highways are dangerous are conspiracy theorists. He described them as “banjo playing conspiracy theorists” and “dingbats”, to be precise. It must be an election year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The minister says there is no evidence to suggest a wire rope barrier is dangerous. That’s because they don't collect crash data on barriers, which leads to inadequate, often misleading, statistics.
What is fact is that VicRoads admitted its wire rope barrier mistake after the CFA/SES went public.
VicRoads committed to a “refit” that will cost taxpayers many millions of dollars.
It’s fact too that the 2012 Parliamentary Inquiry recommended a crash data authority be established independent of VicRoads.
And, an obvious fact is that while VicRoads spends millions of our dollars on wire rope barriers, country roads are in a deadly state of disrepair.
Logic tells road users that it’s dangerous to have a fence right next to a traffic lane particularly in a 100km/h speed zone.
People who use their eyes and brains to detect road hazards are not conspiracy theorists.
When it comes to road safety they demand better from their elected representatives and their public servants.
Damien Codognotto, Independent Riders Group Melbourne
Parks being ignored
Since 1967, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has looked after our national parks, their precious wildlife, worked for the conservation of native and threatened species, educated generations of school children and played host to countless camping holidays and bushwalks.
Their ability to perform these essential public services is now under threat from a restructure by the NSW government, which will result in a series of cuts and job cuts and loss of expertise.
It is clear that we love our national parks.
They receive more than 40 million visits in NSW each year, and an overwhelming 94 per cent of visitors describe themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with their experience.
Parks such as Fell Timber Creek Nature Conservation Reserve and Ryans Lagoon Nature Conservation Reserve are an important part of the community, environment and public space. If the NPWS restructure goes ahead, the NSW community will soon notice the consequences of the government’s reckless approach to parks management.
Fewer rangers, closed tracks, less maintenance of visitor facilities and encroaching invasive species will become the unfortunate norm. I urge readers to contact the NSW government and ask it to stop its war on National Parks and treat rangers and all staff with the respect they deserve.
Greens NSW MP and environment spokeswoman Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC
One’s enough, thanks
Aren't you sick of those ads on TV that say “But wait, order now and get another one free”? Well I don't need two vacuum cleaners, I can only push one at a time. I don't need two step ladders, I can only stand on one at a time. At the moment I only require one Hawk flat ball inflator, perhaps as I get older I might have use for the other.
Could these companies please let us have one instead of two for one half of the packaged price.
