February 2011
A draft of The National Road Safety Strategy 2011‐2020 has been released for public comment and ifyou would like to check it out go to www.infrastructure.gov.au and follow the links to roads and thenroad safety. We will be lodging a response to the draft and if you want to let me know your thoughts onit please call me on 0418 954 424Some of the future issues that the draft raises are the possibility of introducing a zero or .02% bloodalcohol content limit on motorcyclists. We oppose this as there is no evidence that riders are at a higherrisk than other road users. (We are in fact less likely to be involved in a fatality than car drivers withalcohol in our systems) Another proposal is to legislate to install ABS on all motorcycles .We don’t thinkthis is viable or necessary as it is already being driven by consumer demand and to expectmanufacturers to build motorcycles and scooters with ABS just for our market would make the cost ofthen jump dramatically, or they just would not bring them into Australia as we account for only 1% ofthe world market.There is also a proposal to introduce a motorcycle black spot program in all States which would be ahuge benefit to us, but they are looking at the possibility of funding it through a nationwide levy on thirdparty motorcycle insurance similar to what they are doing in Victoria. We are totally opposed to thisform of taxing motorcyclist to fix roads that we already pay taxes and registration for. After all car andtruck drivers don’t pay extra for road safety, pedestrians and cyclists don’t pay any registration orlicense fees and yet there special needs are catered for and so they should be. So then why shouldanyone who chooses to ride a motorcycle or scooter be singled out to pay an extra tax? These are just some of the proposals in the National Road Safety Strategy draft and as far as I knowthese are not being considered by our State Government at present. But we all need to work as one tooppose any moves that seek to treat riders any different to other road users. As I said earlier please feel free to call me and discuss any of the issues raised in the Draft.Dave Wright