The legal profession must take much responsibility for this abysmal state of affairs where taking responsibility for your own actions is not an option.
Our political leaders are particularly adept at this. It is always the other party`s fault.
The buck never stops with them.

But of course pollies won't take responsibility for not taking responsibility for the irresponsible . The police state won't police petrol ethylene wall-cladding for high-rises and people have the choice of keeping water-buckets handy or riding the wall of death.

Mostly agree David. It's the same with a lot of things. Seatbelt and lifejacket laws immediately come to mind.
Where we fish in our little dinghy for the most part we stop next to a channel and push an oar down into the silt to tie up to. If it sinks we'd just wade back to shore but because we use a little egg beater to save rowing nanny dictates we must clutter the boat and ourselves with a list of "safety" gear under threat of heavy fines. It's tedious.
Yes we should be free to make our own judgement on what safety gear's needed for the situation.

And yes, hear you regarding the growing fashion of police saying what the rules should be. Down here in Tas at the moment it seems they're writing the bills and the current hapless Lib government aren't questioning them.

Of course this smothering nanny state's a rentseekers paradise. Lots of compulsory safety gear and training courses to sell.

But I don't agree with you on public hospitals being selective. Stupid or plain unlucky shouldn't be punishable by exclusion. Giving the public service freedom to choose who it serves based on views about choices is a recipe for disaster. The injury and embarrasment for stupid is penalty/reminder enough.

Stupid is as stupid does!

David

So, if you are a police officer you are not entitled to have opinions, according to this narky politician. And we should all pay for injuries incurred by people too stupid to protect themselves. Leyonhjelm's libertarian ravings show the Senate up for the childish waste of time it is. None of the bozos would ever be elected under procedures and requirements for the lower house.

“...we accept the risks”. Well how about accepting the costs of injury and treatment in public hospitals where you will be taken in an emergency!

Anyone who rides a motor bike on today's roads is as thick as a brick.

As long as other folk are all but compelled to pick up the pieces, we need laws/rules to protect stupid morons from themselves, or like, "I'm alright Jack," smokers, the harm their irresponsible activities could impose, without even the shadow of consent, on others.

I've also ridden bikes and before helmets became mandatory, loved to ride, the wind in my hair, the flies in my teeth.

The small peppery ones weren't too bad, but those blue bottles tasted like the toilets they regularly frequented when on the piss or a drop of the "hard stuff."

As for boots and gloves? Only folks not having ridden unprotected into the teeth of an unavoidable, howling hail storm/sandstorm, would contemplate not wearing them.

And the fact that some folks think we should remain free to please ourselves to do as we see fit, when it comes to protective gear, will see a return of blokes operating grinders etc., without protective eyewear. Just to save pennies!

I guess you've never had to remove a steel speck from an eye David?

When it's your responsibility to patch these morons or remove lumps of metal or splintered wood from an exposed limb hand or foot, you may have justifiable cause to come to another more sane, respect for the rights of others and the wider community, opinion?

Sometimes the wide eyed look just emphasises, the vast, empty space between them!
Alan B.

Bikies are bullet proof , it's the gravel that gets up their nose.

So the root problem is the compulsory health system which we are subjected to. We needn't discuss motorbikes because they are only a symptom!

What we need is a way to opt out from the patronising assumption as if we require and accept the state's medical services - or any other medical services for that matter. We should be able to tell the state's doctors - or any other doctors for that matter, "don't you dare lay your dirty hands on my body: the fact that I happen to be sick or injured has nothing to do with you and whether I live or die is none of your bloody business!"

Bureaucrats should be careful of the media. They are there for the story and no, they do not see themselves as responsible for their victims.

Freedom of speech should be paramount and that ensures as in this case, that facts, agenda too, can be subjected to scrutiny.

In response to some comments here about cycling and I will say first up that I comply with the helmet law and liked it for my children, there is worth in comparing and contrasting the regulation and approach to cycling in countries where it is popular as a the 'go to' means of transport. The Netherlands for example,

http://www.executivestyle.com.au/what-the-dutch-can-teach-australia-about-cycling-gjd00h

There is no doubt that the future of our cities will necessitate far greater use of bicycle transport. One wonders why our State and Local governments waste public money re-inventing the wheel. Just bring in some of those successful planners.

However, State or Local governments will never be allowed to get their acts together on transport and town planning where lazy federal governments continue to rely on mass immigration and over-the-top population growth,

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/08/gittins-lower-immigration-reduce-lot-economic-problems/

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There are maps from the British Mandarin of Rothschild showing Chinese fishing temples in east Lebanese Sea . The region is rarely visited and is dry , abandoned desert suitable for Peoples' Stealth Bomber marine research. The quaint villagers around the desolate "Tel Aviv" shrimp-drying huts welcome the comradely airbase on unused waterfront surfing slums.

But of course pollies won't take responsibility for not taking responsibility for the irresponsible . The police state won't police petrol ethylene wall-cladding for high-rises and people have the choice of keeping water-buckets handy or riding the wall of death.
Posted by nicknamenick,
<<
Very Very good comment!

You must be kidding leoj, the worst result possible will definitely occur when ever bureaucratic town planners are involved. Just look at the infernal mess they are making of our roads, with ridiculous roundabouts, cycle lanes & public transport corridors.

I am equally sick of fool senior cops, tyring not to smile & give the game away on TV, when they claim every kilometre over the speed limit is a killer. They are right, but only for your bank account after the fines.

I once had another officious official of the Sydney Harbours & Marine Authority threaten to arrest me if I sailed out of the heads, without a Dan buoy & life ring, connected by a prescribed length of rope on my stern rail.

I courteously explained I was heading for the Solomon Islands, single handed. Not only would there be no one to throw the things to me if I fell overboard, but they were a damn nuisance in heavy seas, when the rope was invariably washed out of it's bag, then all over the deck, causing considerable danger of tangling my feet. Thus I had them stored up forward.

When he still threatened to arrest me, I fortunately could advise him that my yacht was a British registered ship, & as master I was entitled to take any action I deemed fit, if he committed an act of piracy by trying to board it. My response would be violent in the extreme, as permitted by law.

He left, leaving me somewhat less inclined to accept tin pot officials.

Ah Hasbeen, You haven't disappointed as usual, with your comedic response?

Roundabouts save lives as do speed bumps on urban roads! By obliging the I'm alright Jack, [more money than brains,] tyre burning hoons, to slow down.

I see in the news, where one of your, [responsible driver,] mates, lit them right up and started a very nice barbeque amongst rev head race going patrons! Who foolishly thought, they weren't on that Mother's menu? Sheesh!

As for the water police? A VIP like you knows how to put those tinpot tyrants in their place!

I don't blame you for not wanting to wear a protective helmet, after all, you'll be at the helm when you come about and in absolutely no danger from the boom.

As for the lifebuoy and rope, they could have come in handy if you were castaway, needed to build a raft, and somewhere along the voyage, needed to dive overboard to spear a fish or rescue WILSON!? I'M SORRY WILSON!

As for a violently swinging boom whacking your upper story? I'd not worry! Not that there was much up there to hurt anyway? After all, that bump on the head, is your head?

I always worry when I go for my annual checkup and the examining Doctor shines a light in one ear and manages to bedazzle the assisting nurse on the other side? Boom, boom.
Alan B.

Hasbeen,

There is no way that the federal governments of the present and foreseeable future are going to let up on mass immigration. Why so has been discussed on here many times before.

The costs of fuel, energy, will continue to rise. Cities are already chockers and the political elite with business are hell-bent on increasing density of population and selling the high rise slums for the future.

Just you watch, people, the old and the young for starters, will be pushed into small units with shared facilities, 'open space'/'community spaces' as in shared planter boxes in lieu of backyards and gardens, perhaps on roof tops or using a margin of footpath space. It is already happening.

I reckon it is not far off that the large metropolitan cities will set low, 20kph max, speed limits and very high vehicle licence and registration fees. That plus expensive vehicle servicing and running costs, will see many people losing their private vehicles.

So yes, it will be back to bicycles for many and it will be sold as a virtue for health, social, community and so on.

Staying on the farm is a good idea.

Garbage Alan. As the Rural Watch coordinator for my area I have quite a bit to do with the cops.

They are backing our push to get rid of the dinky little roundabouts & traffic calmers in a local acreage sub development. Not only are they a menace to anyone in a truck, or towing a horse float caravan or equivalent, they are attracting the hoons.

These things are very pretty, at least while the developer maintain the gardens embedded in them attracting the tree change city slickers, but they supply a gymkhana course for the hoons from the nearest new slum, planned city development they call it, 15 kilometres away.

The taxpayer is seeing hundreds of millions wasted on roundabouts or huge intersections in lightly travelled country roads, which have not seen an accident in 25 years, thanks to fool planners & their grandiose rubbish. Meanwhile we still have main roads restricted to 40 Km/H due to unrepaired flood damage from back in February.

Put these clowns out in the real world, & they wouldn't last a minute.

What I really love are the roundabouts that are so small and restrictive that they are not big enough for a garden, so most people seem to drive over them rather than around; then there are the truly botanical ones that obstruct all view of oncoming traffic so that when some hoon is coming towards one, over the speed limit there is no way to know that he is approaching until he suddenly does a screeching right-hand turn in front of one.
In front, if one is lucky, a collision if not.

Then there are the roundabouts that have negative camber because it's too expensive to build them correctly and put in underground drainage.

What I really love are magic roundabouts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D22BOOGbpFM

Now that really puts the civil into civil engineering - just obey the road rules and it all works. Only in Britain, where people still know how to queue....

Hasbeen

"Sydney Harbours & Marine Authority.. my yacht was a British registered ship, & as master I was entitled to take any action I deemed fit, if he committed an act of piracy by trying to board it. My response would be violent in the extreme, as permitted by law. "

That's useful information. When I enter Qld from NSW and a Police Officer shoves a breathalyzer barrel through my window , I will resist the piracy . My violence will be throwing him into the traffic.

But tying your life ring to the bow worries me , however . When your boat sinks and you jump into the ring....

Your car is a ship, & a British registered one no less Nick.

WOW.