David Penberthy: While kids throw rocks at cars, Onkaparinga Council fights and Parliament debates manscaping
IF KIDS keep throwing rocks at cars on the Southern Expressway, someone will die, writes David Penberthy. Meanwhile, the unsalvageable Onkaparinga Council endlessly votes and Parliament debates MPs’ beards and buttons. What the hell are they doing? Read Penbo’s searing column here.
Opinion
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- TODAY: Kids caught, police launch Southern Expressway campaign
- JUNE: Christie Downs: Rock thrown at car again
- MAY: Mother and toddler in near miss
- APRIL: Rocks thrown in Southern Expressway near miss
- MARCH: Cars damaged by rocks thrown on Southern Expressway
- FEBRUARY: Rocks, bottle thrown at cars on Southern Expressway
THERE are two institutions that could solve the problem of rock-throwing on the Southern Expressway almost overnight. They are State Parliament and the Onkaparinga Council.
Given the seriousness of what happened on Monday, with an unprecedented two rock attacks on cars on the one day, the gravity of the issue cannot be over-estimated.
The announcement of a special police task force, the oddly-named Operation Watercolour, to tackle the problem is welcomed, albeit a bit overdue. Someone is going to be seriously injured, or killed, if we do not act.
Set against that fact, the conduct of both the aforementioned institutions the day after these twin attacks was nothing short of a joke.
The biggest joke of all was, of course, the Onkaparinga Council, which convened an urgent and extraordinary meeting on Tuesday not to discuss the safety of its ratepayers but for an all-in stink over the apparently abrasive personality of Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg.
In the latest tedious instalment of what is now more than a year-long drama, all of it stemming back to CEO Mark Dowd’s golfing proclivities, the council split 9-6 on the question of whether Ms Rosenberg is some kind of demagogue who should quit as a matter of urgency, or the greatest thing that’s ever happened in the local government space.
This council in its current form is beyond salvation.
It should be sacked in its entirety with every position declared vacant and a fresh election held forthwith.
Not so much because of all the credit card and expenses-related dramas, but because in the current grip of a hugely serious policy challenge that goes to the heart of public safety, they are collectively so obsessed with personality politics as to serve no purpose to the ratepayers of the south.
As far as the atmospherics of all this go, the events on North Terrace this Tuesday weren’t much more impressive.
Question Time was hijacked by discussion of Tom Koutsantonis’ new beard and the question of whether he is also a manscaper, with Labor responding by taking points of order chastising ministers for failing to button up their jackets before answering questions.
The burning issues of the day. Those of us who believe we are over-governed can find enough material from these few hours on Tuesday to argue that one tier of government has to go.
The Government and Opposition are locked in a rhetorical battle over who has the best plan to deal with the question of rock-throwing.
New Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas has unveiled a six-point plan, inviting Government criticism that Labor sat on its hands for 16 years and in the wake of a very recent defeat now deigns to lecture a new administration about its apparent laziness after two months in power.
None of this one-upmanship is making any material difference for the people of the south.
It is hot air that simply delays the prospect of anyone taking ownership of the issue.
I am not sure what southerners did wrong in a past life to have to endure some of the nonsense that has been provided to them courtesy of their expressway.
First they had to endure the ignominy of being given one of the more laughable pieces of infrastructure in the world, memorising the times at which the road changed directions.
Now, they’ve got a council that’s taken no active interest in addressing this latest safety challenge and a Parliament that is fiddling while rocks fly past people’s windscreens.
One of the more lamentable features of this rock-throwing story is that it simply starts with bad parenting and community dysfunction, where most of the perpetrators (including the three who were caught a few months back) appear to be the kids of parents who have no idea and/or interest as to the whereabouts or conduct of their children.
On top of that, it is hard to argue that SAPOL can effectively police every stretch of this 22km-long road with 15 different overpasses and many wooded stretches where ratbags can lurk behind trees.
It is a pity the job now falls to government to solve a problem that is born out of the purest form of stupidity. But governments — state and local — are meant to be in the problem-solving business, however stupid the origins of the problem might be.
My reading of all this is that there is a huge opportunity for Steven Marshall to reflect the exasperation of the public on this issue by saying bugger the bureaucratic process, let’s fix this within weeks.
While Parliament was squabbling on Tuesday, and the warring councillors steeling themselves for Tuesday night’s showdown, I like many thousands of motorists spent part of Tuesday driving up and down the full length of the Southern Expressway.
I made a point of counting the number of overpasses.
There are 15, five of them covered, one partially covered, the other nine not covered at all.
The ones that are covered make it completely impossible for anyone to throw anything larger than a pebble into oncoming traffic.
The danger could be eliminated if the other nine get covered up too.
If there is some sort of council-related issue stopping the State Government from acting on its own, it would be audacity writ large for that hapless lot at Onkaparinga to bung on any obstruction in the current climate.
Premier Marshall has a huge chance early in his premiership to be the bloke who fixes this once and for all by saying simply that he’s not interested in excuses as to why it can’t be done, he just wants it done.
That’s what every southern resident and road user feels right now. They also have every right to feel deeply annoyed at the fact that it’s become a vehicle for the most juvenile brand of politics, rather than action.
David Penberthy hosts breakfasts on FIVEaa with Will Goodings
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