Webber Slams Australia as a "Nanny State"!

[SennaMan]

I now live here in Australia and, although this is a magnificent country, I too deplore the pervasive perniciousness of over zealous bureaucrats and their constant raft of pedantic rules and regulations which assails common-sense and reveals their "nanny state" mindset.

This too often is a close relative of "political correctness" which to my mind is a by-product of so called labour/labor Governments.

Furthermore it is worse in New Zealand, the country of my birth, and is one of the reasons I emigrated to Australia in 2006.

Here is the article:

AS POLICE warned that Victoria was heading for its worst road toll in five years, motor racing driver Mark Webber attacked speeding laws.

On a weekend where five people died on the state's roads, four involving speed, the grand prix ace said Australia was becoming a nanny state and ''it pisses me off coming back here, to be honest''.

The Queanbeyan [a town in NSW] native said that following his return from Europe he had been ''dodging the ridiculous speeding and parking [rules] and all the nanny-state country that we have down here in Australia''.

The Red Bull driver said Britain's formula one hope Lewis Hamilton had found out very quickly about what you can and cannot do on the roads in Victoria.

Hamilton had his Mercedes impounded on Friday night after being caught by police doing burnouts in St Kilda.

''It's a great country, but we've got to be responsible for our actions and it's certainly a bloody nanny state when it comes to what we can do,'' Webber said before yesterday's race.

While the Australian was criticising the state's road laws, Hamilton was apologising for his behaviour.

The police and the government were making no apologies for what appears to be a losing fight to keep the road toll down.

Transport Accident Commission Minister Tim Holding said: ''I don't think anyone who has lost a loved one because of road trauma would think that Victoria's anti-hoon laws are too harsh.''

Victoria's top traffic policeman, Deputy Commissioner Ken Lay, said the state was determined to crack down on hoon driving.

''We have one of the safest road systems in the world and target aggressive driving and we make no apology for that,'' he said.

Premier John Brumby said the state had road rules for good reason, to ensure public safety and protect lives.

But Webber felt Australians increasingly were being tied up by rules.

''I think we've got to read an instruction book when we get out of bed - what we can do and what we can't do … put a yellow vest on and all that sort of stuff,'' he said.

Victoria's road toll stands at 78, compared with 67 for the same time last year.

''Every day we're getting a fatal,'' Mr Lay said, while warning that police would blitz roads in the lead-up to and over the Easter break.

He hoped to keep the annual road toll to under 300 but it was a tough task.

''We are now on track for our worst road toll for more than five years,'' he said.

[what contradictory and convoluted nonesense. If they are going to have their "......worst road toll for more than five years" it is obvious their so called road rules and "......targeting of agressive driving" are simply ineffective!

Instead of the threatening big stick how about acknowledging most drivers are safe and launch a big campaign urging us to "Drive Friendly"?]

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/australian-grand-prix/mark-webber-takes-swipe-at-australian-nanny-state-20100328-r4qj.html





   

[cosworth151]

Well said, Mark! As you say, SennaMan, their draconian laws don't seem to be doing any good. In fact, they seem to be having the opposite effect.

[Scott]

Where does the word 'hoon' come from and what exactly does it mean?   

[SennaMan]

Where does the word 'hoon' come from and what exactly does it mean?   

well scotty,  according to WIKIPEDIA :

"Hoon" is a derogatory term used in Australia and New Zealand to refer to a younger person who engages in loutish, anti-social behaviour. In particular, it is used to refer to one who drives in a manner which is anti-social by the standards of contemporary society, that is, fast, noisily or dangerously. While generally applied to automobiles and other road vehicles, anti-hooning legislation also targets hooning behavior wherever it occurs, including motor boats. Hoon activities can include speeding, burnouts, doughnuts or screeching tires.[1] Those commonly identified as being involved in "hooning" or street racing are young, predominantly male although increasingly female drivers in the age range of 17 and 35 years.[2]" 

for the rest of the article please go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoon

now we all want to get rid of dangerously unsafe drivers but my comments are based on over-zealous police impounding cars whose drivers have been guilty of 'chirping the tyres' unintentionally and the article describes more stupidity as well.

and the bottom line is that even with these so-called measures to 'protect us' [lol] the road toll keeps increasing

[david1275]

Could be worse, we call such folk "Ball Begs" (said as it's spelt) in Northern Ireland.

[Ian]

If Mark Webber thinks Aussie is a nanny state he wants to try living in the UK, we need a method statement, a risk assessment and a competency ticket just to climb a stepladder to change a lightbulb, I kid you not.

[aazz]

It's the same in Australia with all of that too Ian. I'm an electrician in a coal mine and for 75% of my jobs the paperwork takes longer to do than the actual job and it's getting worse.

[SennaMan]

It's the same in Australia with all of that too Ian. I'm an electrician in a coal mine and for 75% of my jobs the paperwork takes longer to do than the actual job and it's getting worse.

yeah, when are we going to wake up and realise the bureaucrats have to keep writing new compliance regulations etc. or else it would be uneccessary for them to have a job.

talk about the tail swinging the dog

my vote goes to anyone who will rid us of this priesthood and drastically lower the number of these blood-sucking parasites who we, the ordinary taxpayers, pay for.

[SennaMan]

If Mark Webber thinks Aussie is a nanny state he wants to try living in the UK, we need a method statement, a risk assessment and a competency ticket just to climb a stepladder to change a lightbulb, I kid you not.

heck Ian, I feel for ya mate.

So it appears to be a global thing, this growth in 'red tape'.

btw, mark has lived in the UK for the past 10 years, and now resides in Buckinghamshire I believe.

[FW14B]

I was surprised, at the Imperial War Museum they actually let me climb ladders without any of that, I was genuinely surprised how unlike the nanny state we live in it was!

[Jericoke]

I was surprised, at the Imperial War Museum they actually let me climb ladders without any of that, I was genuinely surprised how unlike the nanny state we live in it was!

Exceptions must be made at times of war.   

[Ian]

Williamsfan, if you want some ladders to do your legs in, go and visit HMS Belfast in London. How they ever climbed up and down them in battle conditions with a heavy sea as well I'll never know.

[FW14B]

Sadly for the time being I am avoiding all museums that are in the IWM group, so the Belfast is out for me too!  But I have been and yeah, I would not fancy any of those ladders at the best of times, let alone combat situations in rough seas. 

[Scott]

Only a small thing, but I couldn't get over the elevators (lifts) you guys have in the UK.  In my hotel in Birmingham, after you chose your floor, a warning came on to tell you the doors were closing (then they closed), then you had to wait for another warning that the elevator was about to move up (before it started moving), and another once it stopped to tell you to 'mind the doors are opening' before the doors would open.  It was almost quicker to walk to the next floor than take the elevator due to the warnings I had to endure before any action took place.  You guys probably don't even notice such things, but to someone coming from the non-nanny state of Switzerland, I noticed it.

If you do something dangerous or stupid here, it's your own fault.  A few years ago an American family in Zermatt lost their father in a skiing accident.  They tried to sue the ski area and even the papers were writing stories about how anyone else could be responsible for what is inherently a dangerous sport.  I have to agree.

[Alianora La Canta]

Given the number of lifts I've been in that have behaved strangely, I find some warning quite useful. It also helps blind people. Still, I've never heard of anyone feeling the need to tell us to mind our heads. If it's that much of a problem, maybe the lift doors need to be bigger?