From MCC delegates list: Bikers Australia. It was well organised and well attended. The local Canberra paper, just a little optimistic, reported 15,000 riders in attendance. The main proceedings were two separate events. The main public event was on the lawn between the old and new Parliament houses, with club tents, trade stalls, a stage , a good band and drinks on sale. It was hot, with a huuuuge black rain cloud hovering over towards Cooma, threatening to come our way. The perimeter trees were the only shelter from the sun. The band played on, hosted by Jonesy from 2WS, stopping for speeches from Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker (National Party), member for Cowper (Macksville-Dorrigo-Yamba up the North Coast of NSW), who rode his Ducati 999 down from Coff's Harbour for the day. Some of you may have met him at Superbike School when Keith Code was taking class a few weeks ago. Out there, he was just "Luke". Nice bloke, a real rider. He's listening. He can keep items alive in the Federal area, only if they are relevant to the Federal area. [URL]http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/member.asp?id=AMM[/URL] He looks after aged care stuff, so think to the future, lads. Also speaking was Federal MP, Dr. Brendan Nelson (Liberal Party), member for Bradfield (Chatswood to Wahroonga along the Pacific Hwy in Sydney's northside). He rode his Triumph Speedmaster down from Sydney. I've ridden with him and he knows how to have fun. Brendan Nelson is now our Minister for Defence. He is very direct, no bullshit. He pointed out the limited powers of the Federal govt in terms of road safety issues - that these are in the hands of the States, so the need is for local action there, although like Luke Hartsuyker, he can be of real value in keeping issues alive in debates and speaking up for motorcycle issues when it's relevant to the Federal sphere. We can't expect more, it's as good as we can get. But WE need to keep them informed. [URL]http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/member.asp?id=RW5[/URL] Rider representatives spoke on various aspects of politics - Noel Andrew spoke for Bikers Australia on the event and the significance of a national agenda for motorcycle awareness, Robyn Major (MRA ACT and Chair of AMC) spoke on the Australian Motorcycle Council and how it now allows the various States to align their agendas for unified political effort, Sean Lennard (Tasmanian Motorcycle Council) spoke on their outstanding success in the recent overthrow of the Tasmanian bike tax, Guy Stanford (MCC of NSW) spoke on the proposed anti-lane splitting laws and other laws in the bundle (see [URL]http://www.mccofnsw.org.au/a/166.html[/URL] for more), Damien Codognotto (Vic, MRA) spoke on the need to keep ourselves "present" in the public and political agendas of the day by keeping our own local politicians informed of what concerns us - this is excellent advice, take note and act locally. There were T-shirt giveaways, prize showbags and some lucky soul won a 4 burner barbeque! (delivery included). In fact, the barbeque people were pretty entertaining, lobbing rolled up T-shirts into the crowd with a muzzle-loading gas-powered bazooka that packs a wallop, enough to belt the shirts about 70 meters before smacking into the inattentive. For a moment it looked like an Aussie Rules match with packs of players going up for the mark! The second event was a much quieter affair, an "afternoon tea" at Parliament house for rider representatives with Federal Minister for Transport, Warren Truss (National Party, member for Wide Bay - around Maryboroug, Qld). This was all very nice, with excellent biscuits and surprisingly good coffee. Warren Truss has only recently taken over the Transport portfolio since John Anderson retired, so he was not fully up to speed on a few items. His previous portfolio was Agriculture. He had no idea about the proposed changes to road rules or on how these would affect the rural sector. A small group of rider reps devoted their attention to Warren Truss. We had questions that needed answers. We asked him "WHY?" the Federal government in its response to "Eyes on the Road Ahead", (Federal Road Safety Parliamentary Committee) had rejected Recommendation 36, for the development of a National Motorcycle Safety Strategy. The answer is very revealing. "Oh, we had a ring around and didn't get a warm reception on this from most of the States". Here's the rub. The Feral garment only has such powers as the States have been prepared to give up. For a National Motorcycle Safety Strategy, it requires agreement from a majority of States. This is done through the ATC, or Australian Transport Council. The Federal govt only has one vote on this Council and is outvoted by the sheer number of States and Territories (and New Zealand). In other words, the Feds thought it a waste of effort, on a hiding to nothing, as there would be no support from the States. We spoke generally for a while and discovered that Warren Truss has an interest in trucks due to his agricultural background in broadacre grain farming. He has never ridden a motorcycle, they are of little value in grain growing. I pointed out that whilst there are rules for trucks in the National Road Rules, there is no National Safety Strategy for trucks, in the same way as there are rules for motorcycles, but no national strategy. That in the car-centric culture of the Labour States, it appears that any other form of vehicle is regarded as an interloper to be marginalised or shunned. That this form of car-centric culture no longer has a place, as congestion increases in cities and truck routes are combined with passenger car routes. That the problem is the same - the road system is set up for cars and while motorcycles are inappropriately treated as "small cars", equally, trucks are considered to be "big cars". That this analysis is too simplistic and inadequate to meet the needs of mobility or safety. That motorcycles are even worse off than trucks, there is no classification for them, hence are systematically overlooked. While we are here in Canberra asking for cars to look out for motorcycles, we are inside the big house, pointing out that not only are motorcycles invisible to cars on the road, but motorcycles are also invisible to public policy. That not until within the last year, were motorcycles even counted in traffic studies. So we placed our request firmly and repeatedly, for a National Motorcycle Safety Strategy, to provide a core of knowledge as a reference for all States and the Federal govt in developing policy that affected motorcycles. We have asked Warren Truss, as Federal Minister for Transport, to use his position on the ATC to place this item on the National Agenda and that we will write it for him if necessary. It is a complex process. However, we have come to Canberra to ask for his help in this matter, in which it is possible for the Federal Government to demonstrate leadership in moving Australia off the bottom rungs of the list for our poor record in motorcycle safety. In side discussions with his advisors, it appears that we may not call it a "strategy", but that the objective remains the same, to develop a document with a broad and deep pool of knowledge that encompasses motorcycle issues, to be drawn upon as an initial start point for transport and road safety policy formation. In this way we can hope to avoid the sort of unreality that has emerged from the review of Road Rules, where opinion has overruled evidence. We opened the door, but need to continue our efforts to follow through on this. It's all good and congratulations to the organisers for making the opportunity happen. Rider representatives conducted themselves well, networked their heads off, drank all the fresh orange juice and devoured plateloads of excellent biscuits and average sandwiches. Guy MCC of NSW
