Editorial: Drivers not enjoying fine ‘crackdown’
PUBLIC support starts to wane when government views expensive infringement notices not only as a way of punishing but also as an attractive revenue pot.
Opinion
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WHEN governments try to change people’s behaviour via strict enforcement of rules and regulations, they walk a fine line between producing a desirable result and alienating voters by being too heavy-handed.
This is especially true when it comes to ensuring that motorists behave responsibly and respectfully on our roads. When it comes to cracking down on dangerous driving behaviour for example, no responsible person is going to object to police enforcing rules that prohibit mobile phone use while driving, speeding through school zones, drink or drug driving or getting behind the wheel of patently unroadworthy, uninsured vehicles.
But public support starts to wane when government views expensive infringement notices not only as a way of punishing but also as an attractive revenue pot that can always be enlarged with a bit more enforcement.
In other words, bust someone for speeding through a red light at 80km/h or driving at over the legal limit, and people will say it’s a fair cop. Start fining otherwise law-abiding motorists for the most minor of accidental speeding infringements at the bottom of a hill on a safe road and you will create resentment and a push-back at perceived revenue raising, to the point where the overriding safety objective risks being undermined.
The same applies even at the most prosaic level. As The Courier-Mail reports today, for example, Brisbane motorists are now being hit with a parking fine every two minutes. This blitz has seen nearly 280,000 fines handed out in the past financial year, lifting Brisbane City Council’s take by $7.5 million over the previous year to a whopping $30 million. And the trend is continuing, with more than 120,000 infringement notices issued in the first six months of the 2017-18 financial year.
As BCC points out, few motorists could reasonably object to the 10,400 fines that penalised people for parking in clearways, but this example of sensible implementation represents less than 4 per cent of total fines issued.
As this newspaper has been reporting for some time, there are increasing incidences of overly zealous parking officers fining people for the most minor of transgressions. This might be overstaying a two-hour parking limit in a street otherwise full of empty parking spaces, or cracking down on residents parking in their own driveways, or tradies leaving a vehicle on a nature strip while they lug their gear to a construction site.
All may technically breach the letter of the law, but Lord Mayor Graham Quirk needs to counsel that some common sense must be applied if he wants to take Brisbane residents with him when it comes to reducing congestion, rather than alienating them via inflexibly strict enforcement.
In fact, in a city with a sensible, flexible traffic management system that places the free flow of cars and people ahead of money, revenue from parking infringement notices should be decreasing instead of soaring. Here, Brisbane could learn from more progressive approaches overseas, rather than clinging to a policy model that relies on largely punitive measures rather than more innovative solutions.
WORKER SCHEME FATALLY FLAWED
NO WORKER in Australia should start a shift wondering if they will make it home alive. That’s the stuff of 19th century slave labour or countries that exploit children or immigrant labour in appalling conditions.
Yet it appears that another Pacific Island worker has died in Queensland while taking part in the Federal Government’s controversial Seasonal Worker Program. The Tongan man’s death at a property near Bundaberg is the 14th fatality under the program, and at least the eighth in Queensland.
While police are investigating, it would be premature to comment on details of the case, but the man’s death is part of a concerning trend.
It comes after a lengthy investigation by The Courier-Mail revealed claims of endemic neglect. This included workers being housed in appalling conditions, underfed, underpaid, abused and denied medical treatment, with many of the problems blamed on rogue contractors.
To date, calls for a thorough review of the program have been rejected, with a spokesman for Employment Minister Michaelia Cash saying late last year that the Seasonal Worker Program had “robust protections for workers and all employers are rigorously vetted by the Department of Employment before being allowed to recruit workers”.
The apparent abuse and exploitation of these workers at the hands of a few rogue operators is becoming a national disgrace. At its core, the program is a worthwhile scheme aimed at benefiting both our Pacific neighbours with well-paid employment and opportunity, and our farmers by helping fill labour gaps.
Administered properly, it is one neither farmers nor workers and their families would like to see cancelled.
As it stands, however, it is clear there are grave failings when it comes to oversight of how the program is administered and monitored at grassroots level.
This can no longer be ignored, and Minister Cash must accept she has a real and deadly problem in her portfolio. It needs to be fixed before anyone else dies – and not be dismissed by press release.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Sam Weir, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at www.couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us