In a media release on Tuesday 11 October 2011 the Victorian government claimed that police have taken a record number of ‘hoons’ off the roads in the last three months, following the tough new ‘hoon’ laws introduced by the Victorian Coalition Government on 1 July.
The laws have proven highly successful, with over 1,000 hoons’ vehicles impounded, Minister for Roads Terry Mulder said. Mr Mulder said statistics released by Victoria Police show that the Coalition government was serious about road safety.
The government toughened anti-hoon laws, increasing the impoundment period from 48 hours to 30 days. Really Mr Mulder and Co., you think you are saving Victorian lives by impounding 1000 cars in a type of ‘communist’ legislation denying people their rightful property and vilifying Victorian citizens by calling them ‘hoons’, which in my opinion is a culturally racist word. I have also read that some people who were not ‘hooning’ had their cars impounded by hubristic police officers. What is the definition of ‘hoon’ but an interpretation of the new legislation determined by individual law enforcement officers on the day! Under this law you can be branded a ‘hoon’ if you forget to stick your new registration label on your windscreen.
If an officer of the law determines you are breaking a traffic law then he has the right to impound your car without having a judgement passed on you in a court of law and you, as an individual in this ‘free society’, have no right of appeal. As far as speeding drivers are concerned, I challenge Mr Mulder to come out and explain why Germany – where the speed limit is almost double – has less motorway accidents than Australia? Are the Germans all ‘hoons’ or are we catering our road laws to the lowest common denominator ‘the worse driver on the road’? We have young Victorian drivers, that because of lack of driver education, easy access to licence testing and inexpensive licence fees come out of the system inadequate to even drive at the speed limit.
Then we mostly give them old, unroadworthy family hand me down cars to drive – a recipe for disaster! No matter how many cameras you have on the roads or how many cars you confiscate you are never going to eradicate bad road behaviour unless you educate from junior school.
Just reflect on the following insanity – The day you qualify for driving is the day you can legally drink alcohol! If you are genuine about safety Mr Mulder, why don’t you lock up the cars of drivers who are over the alcohol limit or under the influence of drugs? Surely they are ‘hoons’ as well. Driver education across all levels and not vilification is the answer!