ATV deaths: McCormack must stand by Australians, not Japanese giants — Yamaha and Honda

The Government has a choice — mandate the fitting of OPDs to all new quad bikes or do nothing and witness even more deaths, writes Peter Hunt.

Life saver: Honda and Yamaha are working to ban rollover bars, such as this ATV Lifeguard.

THE Australian Government has a choice: mandate the fitting of operator protection devices to all new quad bikes or do nothing and witness even more farmers, workers and children asphyxiated or crushed to death in rollovers.

But what’s worrying is just how far quad bike makers Honda, Yamaha and their lackeys at the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries are willing to go in stopping OPDs becoming mandatory.

Questions have already arisen as to what prompted Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack to try to overturn the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s recommendation to mandate OPDs.

We know Mr McCormack called on former Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert, who was responsible for the ACCC, to get the consumer watchdog to remove the OPD recommendation from its final report to government in February.

The ACCC resisted the pressure, with Mr Robert eventually releasing the report in April, but refusing to adopt its recommendations, instead referring the matter to another round of public consultation, which closed last week.

The move came despite the ACCC spending almost 18 months investigating the issue, engaging in extensive industry consultation and receiving 119 submissions.

The new round of consultation offered the Japanese manufacturers and FCAI a last-ditch bid to stop OPDs.

Honda and Yamaha immediately came out with their “ban the bar” website and campaign, threatening to withdraw from the Australian market if the Federal Government accepted the ACCC’s OPD recommendation.

That threat was used to pressure machinery and motorcycle dealers across the nation to lodge submissions to the ACCC opposing OPDs.

Then the Japanese manufacturers and FCAI dragged out an expert from their much-favoured US consultancy Dynamic Research Inc, to tour Australia, talk to the media and cast doubt on Australian research showing the benefits of OPDs.

Last week the FCAI even attempted to overturn WorkSafe Victoria’s right to issue horse stud owner Neville Murdoch with an improvement notice, requiring him to either fit OPDs or get rid of his six quad bikes.

The FCAI took the case to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid to cast doubt on the Australian Transport and Road Safety Research Centre’s surveys, where fitting OPDs had led to dramatic reductions in rollover injuries.

The FCAI’s barrister cast doubt on the results of these surveys, but then suddenly abandoned the case.

Just why, we don’t know.

But maybe it came down to WorkSafe’s witnesses showing fitting OPDs does make a difference, that they do curb injuries and save lives.

Compare that to the behaviour of Dynamic Research Inc vice president Scott Kebschull, who was due to front the VCAT hearing this week.

It was Kebschull who claimed “three deaths that have occurred with OPDs”. Yet two of these deaths had nothing to do with the OPDs fitted to the quad bikes and one involved a hunting rack, not an approved OPD.

Just like the tobacco and asbestos industries before them the Japanese and FCAI have become merchants of doubt and experts at distorting the truth to protect their interests.

Let’s hope Mr McCormack and his federal colleagues do the right thing by Australians, not bend to the will of these Japanese giants.

● Peter Hunt is The Weekly Times senior reporter