By John Hanrahan
There are thousands of grieving, angry people across Australia right now – family and friends of the thousands of mostly young people who have died on one or other of our roads or highways.
They, like me, are angry because of the repeated failure of current and past State and Federal individual politicians and governments to effectively direct their will-power and resources to upgrading thousands of kilometres of roads across the country.
As we move further into the second decade of the 21st century we still hear the same pathetic excuses, apologies and lies that were bleated out by politicians 40 or more years ago – “it’s on the agenda”, “we’ve got plans”, “resources are more urgently required in other areas”.
Yet more hollow promises, incompetence and dishonesty while more young, and old, lives are lost.
And we’re hearing similar empty, meaningless mutterings from our current crop of politicians aided and abetted by an army of department spin doctors who instruct the politicians how to frame their answers, how not to arouse the ire of families and friends of the dead, how to let the issue fade away as quickly as possible.
All to protect the questionable performances, let alone competency, of the politicians we pay to solve these problems and ensure the delivery of funding that can mean the difference between life and death for families.
And behind them, the obscure bureaucrats who manage these departments should not be left out of the firing line – they’re the ones who do the planning and budgeting and who advise the politicians and spin doctors.
Forty years of blame shifting, incompetence, lying and lack of commitment has got to stop now.
How many more people will die before both State and the Federal Governments redirect substantial new funds and hasten, for example, to complete the work on the Pacific Highway in Northern NSW?
Surely, as an interim measure, there are less costly, effective lifesaving things that could done in a very short time – like constructing a steel fence down the centre of the known murderous blackspots on that road.
Not enough funding? Well, perhaps the instant cancellation of the overseas rorts, outrageously referred to as “study tours”, whereby State and Federal politicians take extended holidays and have a staffer do a cut and paste report from the internet, could save several million right there.
The words honesty and competence are rarely, if ever, heard in the same sentence as a politician’s name.
Our mainstream media is quick to report and lament the latest horrific road accidents and deaths. As they should.
But it seems to be only a hot topic while they can generate headlines to sell papers, grab viewers or listeners and run occasional campaigns. Which is clearly not enough to convince our pollies and bureaucrats to snap into action on these issues.
If our media is to command the respect and credibility it craves, and has slowly lost over the decades, surely this is one issue where it can play its most significant role of all – saving the lives of our young citizens.
We, the public, must put far greater pressure on our various media, as well as our politicians, to demand governments move decisively now.
And ours and the media’s combined voices on this issue must be unceasing until we see real evidence of of improvements where they are most needed.
With the road deaths of Australians constantly in the news it’s time the people we pay to manage our country, including our safety and well being, take immediate and effective action.
Give voice to your anger – phone, email, tweet, blog, go on Facebook.
Let’s remind our elected representatives, and the media, they have been failing us for too long and they must redirect high levels of resources right now.
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