The association believes that a half clever politician intent on retaining office would pay attention to the attitude of his/her electorate: all the more so if their polling results reflected a long-term decline in popularity.
And if that politician’s popularity appeared to be slipping, regardless of the fact that they’d thrown a mountain of money at the electorate during the last election campaign & their chief opponent had once again demonstrated that it had no idea how to mount an effective campaign to unseat you, the association thinks that a prudent politician might start to demonstrate a bit more concern for the views of their constituents.
Of course, as we all know, politicians do not take a lot of convincing to believe that they are infallible, while the longer they hold office, the more it seems that they really do believe that they know best about everything & the less willing they are to listen to anyone-else.
When the Member for Bega was elected way back in 2003, his primary vote was all of 39.3%, while his two-party preferred result was 53.9%. Things improved, with his best performance showing-up in 2011, with 59% of the primary vote & a whopping 68.6% of the two-party preferred count.
But like most things in life, the higher you fly, the harder it is to maintain your success, unless you possess the requisite insight to pay attention to what is going-on around you & more importantly, you demonstrate a capacity & willingness to listen & respond.
So it was that in 2019, having thrown massive piles of money at anyone who happened to have their hand out & having once again been blessed with an incompetent opposition, our Andrew only scored 48.9% of the primary vote & 56.93% of the two-party count.
Now the association is not for a moment suggesting that Andrew’s numbers should be sneezed at, even though some might think that the result should have been far more emphatic in the circumstances.
So, is Andrew listening we ask?
No, we don’t think he is & what’s more, we suspect that he thinks that he doesn’t have to.
That could prove to be a major miscalculation on his part, in particular if there is a change in the federal government this weekend, which could see new challenges emerge in respect of major infrastructure project priorities, along with a fresh perspective in the minds of the electorate as to where the real power is.
Last Thursday Andrew was doing one of his regular “guest spots” on “his ABC” & as he demonstrates on most of those occasions, he is there to inform & educate the electorate on how it should think, not to listen to what those in his electorate might be thinking.
Now, putting aside the willingness of the government to respond to a perceived problem it has with the state’s Judiciary, by introducing regulations to punish its citizenry, rather than dealing with the real problem, & putting aside the fact that a Court Appeal might not be heard until a year after the offender has lost his/her licence & maybe more than nine months after it has been reinstated, let’s think about the real implications of that penalty to those in country NSW.
If a driver was to lose his/her licence in Sydney under the new regime, chances are that they will have a number of public & private transport options available to them that would ensure that their employment would not be jeopardised.
The same can’t be said for offenders in country NSW where there are no meaningful transport options other than private motor vehicles.
So, while offenders in both places will lose their licences & be forced to pay a hefty fine, the country offender may wind-up experiencing a significantly greater punishment through the loss of employment & social alienation, while their entire family may lose its only source of income & even their place of residence.
The association thinks that a half-smart politician determined to achieve positive road safety outcomes, including educating drivers that there will be consequences for non-compliance, could do that while, at the same time, demonstrating a level of sensitivity for the very different implications that will arise for offenders in country areas compared to their metropolitan counterparts.
All the more so where that politician allegedly exists to serve the interests of a country electorate.
The association would like Mr Constance to explain why his new regulatory regime could not have provided a real degree of wriggle room in its application to country offenders, which need not water down its intended impact.
Why can’t country offenders be required to pay the same financial penalty as everyone-else but rather than automatically losing their licences, be warned that they will automatically lose it if they reoffend?
The association believes that such a policy would take account of the real imbalance that exists between people living in the city & the country & would be much less likely to have significant unintended consequences, while not weakening the regulator objectives being pursued by the government.
And it might just cause the electorate to believe that the Member for Bega really is capable of listening to them rather than patronising them.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au