Newcastle Court: Appeal dismissed

The Australian helmet road continues.

In a nutshell the judge said that she was not going to indulge me in my crusade to change the law from her court (or words to that effect).

That was the 'conviction' part of the appeal, and with the 'severity' part I decided to stick with what I'd been dished up at the court of first instance ... ('things could get worse,' I thought!)

And there we have it; criminal conviction no. 3 still stands and I'm no further along that fanciful road of riding a bicycle like the rest of the world than ever before.

Sigh

Heigh ho! Heigh ho! It's off to court I go!

(Film: Bicycle Dutch)


The other day I watched this beautiful clip showcasing the Dutch and their babies doing their 'everyday bicycle stuff' and it made me feel happy, and mad, and sad ... all at once.

Now I can't stop thinking about how crazy we are in Australia with our 'everyday bicycle stuff'!

And yes it confirms my opinion that it all comes back to an inate sexism so deeply engrained here in Australia.

This is a nation that continues to sacrifice women, and children, and trees, and Mother Nature on an altar of white male insecurity even though we have the evidence and data to say we should do none of these things.

This is a nation that continues to elect an array of self-serving predominantly male politicians who continue to trash our nation by their own limitations and deficiences.

This is a nation that gets who they vote for ... sigh

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I am to appear in the NSW District Court in Newcastle (first of a trifecta of helmet court matters over the next two weeks, next one in Adelaide followed by the third one in Sydney). I am appearing to appeal against the criminal conviction I received in the Scone Local Court last year.

Yet again I will be protesting our mandatory bicycle helmet law made against evidence and science, and in contempt of the environment.

Yet again I will be protesting the craven hubris of the influential uninformed.

Yet again I will be protesting the 'unquestioning endorsement of the necessity of helmet compulsion which has conferred undeserved credibility on our useless helmet law.'

Yet again I will be protesting the very Australian triumph of general ignorance and its miscarriage of science.

But this time I am going to revisit Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Politica Rights whereby it states:

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

... and section 41BD of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 whereby it states that a medical device is an:

1(a)(iii) investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological process

... then diverting off to here


... where bicycle helmets are effectively delisted - (oooh but are they?!)


... and where I am then going to argue that because I don't use my bicycle at home, or for occucupational use or for recreational use, a bicycle helmet cannot be excluded by this table in my instance and therefore does fit after all the definition of a medical device as set down by the provisions in the Therapeutic Goods Act!

Oh, it's worth a burl don't you think!

I'll keep you posted

NSW Government and the Trojan Horse Brigade

At a recent tree rally on Anzac Parade earlier this month many of us felt we had been sold out by those who ought to be protecting our beautiful heritage listed trees on Anzac Parade and Alison Road.

Where was the outraged commentary from Centennial Parklands, or Royal Randwick, or even the City of Sydney, and why had the RSL been so nasty?

And where was the covereage in the Sydney Morning Herald?

Why hadn't this issue been on every front page since the tree felling process had commenced?

On reflection I guess the SMH were never going to get too involved given that they are so ridiculously propped up by both the horse-racing industry:



... and the oil industry:



Still notwithstanding the campaign to save the trees was gathering momentum on social media, there was a genuine sense of abandonement.

But the ever-growing revulsion of our New South Wales representatives was totally justified today by Background Briefing's explosive expose of our dodgy government and 'vested' interests.




Acording to Background Briefing's report, that curly scrolly bridge in the above image (the massively controversial Tibby Cotter Cycling and Pedestrian Bridge) turns out to be suitable for vehicles up to 10 tons.

Why, you ask, when to all intents and purposes the bridge was built for pedestrians and cylists?

Well as Background Briefing informed us, it is considered to be highly likely that this massive structure is the early beginnings of a massive underground carpark

The NSW government plans to completely commandeer our public lands and trees to build new stadiums and to create sporting precincts even for tennis which is so on the nose at the moment and may never recover.

The government has been eagerly aided and abetted by the pathetic Centennial Parklands Trust and its trustees who have got completely confused as to what their brief actually is ... namely protecting the parklands and keeping them safely in trust for people now and in future to enjoy and use freely and naturally.



Goodbye Anzac Parade and Kippax Lake as we know it ...


(screen capture: Fourfourtwo, Sydney Stadium Stuff)

... as we watch this out-of-control-government trash this unique memorial and get ready to clutch their hearts on Anzac Day to feign sorrow and gratitude.



For the benefit of NSW politicians, Background Briefing reminded us that the Anzacs marched down Randwick Road (later renamed to Anzac Parade in their memory) to Circular Quay and were bundled on to ships and off to war some of them never to return to Australia again ...



A sandstone obelisk designed and constructed by the city architect, RH Brodrick, was placed on Anzac Parade in 1917 to serve as a memorial to Diggers who did not return and as a meeting placed for those who did.



Yet even that poignant memorial was not safe from the machinations of a development-addicted government which under the premise of rennovation removed it indefinitely to some back lot of the Roads Department in order to build ...


... an entrance to a car-park, leaving just a stump of yet another Anzac memory ... so very disrepectful.


(Image: 1961 last day of Sydney trams on Anzac Parade, reservation Moore Park; Lindsay Bridge, Flickr)

And to think that if we hadn't got rid of Sydney's trams 55 years ago, which we're putting back now at great cost and angst, maybe this whole sorry saga might not have taken place ...

Oh, we have not been well served by our state representatives ...

... is it time to dispense with such a silly tier of government?

(cross posted to Scone Blogger's Blog)

International Women's Day & cycling forever sexist in Australia

Blissful time in Japan, where no-one carps on about your cycling clothes, or your cycling headgear ...


... or even your fabulous cycling footgear.


All of the above, 'de rigeur' in Japan


Oh but that is not the case in Australia ... and alas this week my body is back in this 'sexist-back-water' (but not my heart) and now I find myself up to my ears in pending court cases ... sigh


$$$ Wednesday 23 March: District Court, Newcastle, NSW
$$$ Tuesday 5 April: Magistrates Court, Adelaide, South Australia
$$$ Tuesday 12 April: Local Court, Waverley, NSW


The Adelaide matter arrived yesterday morning in the form of a summons, and hand delivered by two uniformed NSW police officers.

After the initial terror of two police standing on my back doorstep and being assured all was alright with my world (my heart always skips a beat), they proceeded to hand-over the curial paperwork.


No time for tea as they had just had a cuppa, we did have time for a chat, with them curious to know whether I would persist with my campaign. They seemed to think this would be the last of it now that the fines have been bumped up exponentially, but I assured them that it would not.


Baffled, they wanted to know why yet they were not convinced by my answer ... you know, sticking properties of helmets, rapid deceleration of the brain in an accident, often more than one impact received by the 'only-safe-for-one-impact' helmet in an accident, lack of class one evidence (or any evidence for that matter) proving helmets make you safer when riding a bicycle to the shops ... yawn.

They trotted out usual twaddle about all the unreported cycling accidents that never make it to hospital - wtf - and how safe airbags are and how they wouldn't get into cars without them, and then they toddled off and got into their 'airbagged' (I presume) paddy-wagon, and I entered the new court date onto my calendar.

Over twenty years in the making, this half-baked shite about and towards cyclists is representative of Australian community attitudes, and underpins a conflicted culture of sexism and demonisation.

Alarmingly the hostility on Australian streets now is 'writ large' and cycling to get bread and milk has never been so nasty or toxic.

Well done, politicians of Australia, well done, ignorant men of Australia, and well done, bicycle advocacy groups of Australia!

You've all played your part in this sorry Australian saga of bicycle transport affairs.

You're all rubbish, and just look at the mess you've landed us in!

So remembering that it's International Women's Day today, here's a little bloggy chant from me ...

"What do we want?"

"Equality!"

"When do we want it?"

NSW OUT OF CONTROL - SAVE OUR TREES

Sydney is not happy with its chainsaw-wielding government.


This row of trees among many others (1,277 trees all up including 871 significant and heritage listed trees) is to be wood-chipped into oblivion.


So last Friday on the corner of Anzac Parade and Alison Road,


... a vigil was held for Sydney's trees ...


... to protest against the machinations of politicians too invested in bitumen and construction to be able to see clearly ...


... the havoc that their actions will wreak on this city.


Coordinated protests are set to continue as people from across the city and state come together in an ever-growing snowball as they discover that along with the ruthless planned decimation of our invaluable trees, the actual implementation of the CBD and South East Light Rail is projected to reduce public transport capacity by nearly 70% ...


... as well as ripping up another cycleway ... sigh

Andrew Constance and Mike Baird need to pause and redesign the project so we can:

Save our trees
Save our city
Save our souls



(also cross posted to Scone Blogger's Blog)