YOUR SAY: Driver frustration an unreported factor in road crashes

The number of regional roads which have signs saying the speed limit has been reduced to 40kmh for so-called roadworks is increasing. These distances go for many kilometres and you are lucky to see anyone with the exception of a traffic management worker sitting beside their vehicle having a chat with their mates and no sign of any roadworks. Drivers are becoming frustrated and it is a total misuse of funding.

The majority of regional roads are past their use-by date and need a major overhaul, not a patch up job which has become the norm these days. But our pollies are hiding behind the weather conditions and not the lack of funding over many years. Once we used to say you need to take a cut lunch to go for a trip in a regional area but now it is recommended you take a cut breakfast as well.

Why not check if drivers have valid licences when they do a breath and drug test on every occasion which was the norm many years ago. It would amaze the general public how many drivers do not have a valid licence.

More than a month ago I overheard giggles when local voters cast their votes at the referendum that would've enshrined an Aboriginal advisory body in our constitution.

With our pamphlets in hand, we "yes" and "no" volunteers spoke to many locals entering the polling booth on October 14. The laughing began when a "no" volunteer said, "Writing two letters is easier than writing three." Hilarious, right? In 1901, the New Zealand Minister for Native Affairs wasn't laughing when he saw Aboriginal Queenslanders brought in to re-enact Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay. He said later he hopes one day that Australia's First Peoples are "treated as well as the Maori." The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association was formed in 1924, and in 1933, Victoria saw the establishment of the Australian Aborigines' League.

A petition with over 1800 signatures that sought Aboriginal parliament representation was addressed to King George V in 1943, with Cabinet declaring "no good purpose" would be gained by sending it. So they didn't. Then there was the Queensland maritime strike in 1936. The Day of Mourning began in 1937. The Cummeragunja strike in 1939. Palm Island in 1957. The Pilbara strike in 1946. The FCAA comes and goes.

The Yirrkala bark petitions, sent by the Yolngu people, were sent to the federal Parliament in 1963. In '72 the Larrakia people send two. The Wave Hill walk-off in '66. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in '72. ATSIC comes and goes. Howard's failed referendum in '99. The NT Intervention in 2007... But, two letters are easier to write than three, right?

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After reading the opening statement to the recent Senate inquiry into changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan from the Shepparton-based GMID leadership forum my emotions were a mixture of anger, frustration and sorrow.

This group accurately pointed out that most presenters to the inquiry were from outside the basin and "once again failing to demonstrate any empathy with the more than one million people who make their homes in the basin, but once again lining up to set out ideas and approaches that would have significant impact on their lives".

They continued: "Very few of these 'external' presenters ever mentioned the people of the basin, except to suggest that the impacts of their ideas would probably not be as bad as feared, that anxieties were overstated, that basin communities didn't really know what was good for them, and incredibly, even suggesting that because some towns, production systems and economies were going to have to change anyway, any impact of further water recovery didn't matter much."

What has happened to our nation? Where has the compassion for fellow Australians gone? We are being dominated by academia and environmental ideology from those who will never suffer the consequences of their preferred actions.

For the record, more than 3000 jobs lost from the first round of water buybacks was not "overstated" if you were one of those left jobless. Concern at past closures of a local school or sporting club due to population decline, and fears this will continue with more water buybacks is not "overstated".

And while I was initially angry and frustrated that city academia seem not to care about human beings who share their nation and put food on their tables, my lingering feeling was sorrow. I feel sorry for the lack of compassion shown by these people, and headed by our federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek. Because if they possessed any grace, and empathy for fellow Australians, they would work with us on the proven solutions that can provide basin plan implementation without destroying communities and livelihoods.

As the Goulburn Valley leaders stated: "The blithe dismissal of the human impact of this bill, and the callous invisibility of our friends and families, was very hard to listen to."

What a shame that in 2023 political expediency trumps compassion. This has not been the Australian way.

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