Open letter to yet another Australian Prime Minister

(Image: screen capture from @turnbullmalcolm's twitter feed)


The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Prime Minister,

I need your help.

On the eve of another court case in which I must provide my defence for the matter of ‘not wearing a bicycle helmet whilst riding a bicycle,’ I am appealing to you to show reason in this national debate that delineates Australia in the world’s eyes as one of the sillier nations.

It is common knowledge here and abroad that evidence pertaining to bicycle helmets and bicycle helmet law is conflicted. Yet notwithstanding that this topic is obviously in scientific dispute, we are still legally compelled to wear bicycle helmets in Australia.

Most nation states across the globe openly acknowledge that mandatory helmet laws raise issues of civil liberties, and accordingly the decision ‘to helmet or not’ has been left to their individual citizens. In my opinion, it is time such decision-making was relinquished to the realm of choice for Australians too.

Bearing in mind that it was the Hawke government in December 1989 which insisted that all the states enact bicycle helmet laws if they were to receive additional federal road funding for the ‘Black Spot’ program, perhaps you could reverse mandatory helmet regulation offset now with a similar threat of withholding federal funding, only this time for public transport and bicycle infrastructure initiatives, should recalcitrant states refuse to strike out their bicycle helmet regulations.

Clearly mandatory helmet laws ought to be repealed in the interests of social justice, the environment, and our children. Allowing ourselves to be deluded by oil-funded academics, who deliberately steer their observational research into lucrative and secure little sinecures, ought not to be permitted any longer.

Along with this letter, I have enclosed the submissions which outline the case for why I should be found not guilty by the magistrate in the Scone Local Court this coming Friday 23rd October 2015.

Repealing mandatory helmet law is a simple and inexpensive piece of law reform, and one that would bring the marvellous bicycle back to our roads ... with a vengeance.

Please help me.

Yours sincerely,

Sue (no-relation-to-tony) Abbott
http://www.freedomcyclist.blogspot.com

cc The Hon. Mike Baird, MP, GPO Box 5341, SYDNEY NSW 2001; Mr Michael Johnsen, MP, 20 Bridge Street, MUSWELLBROOK NSW 2333; The Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon, PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

Pre-dawn Christiania stopping - only in Australia

I hadn't done this trip from my sister's before so I allowed myself plenty of time to get to the airport on my Christiania. I was heading to Broken Hill for the weekend as the 'man-of-my-life' had started working out there for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) - definitely time for a visit.

So I left Randwick before dawn, and made my way through the deliciously cool dark morning gliding past Prince of Wales Hospital and the University of New South Wales, eventually taking a left hand turn onto Anzac Parade for a brief little sojourn on that usually hectic road before turning right into a bicycle land of back streets that almost took me right through to Domestic.

Once on O'Riodan Street in Mascot, I trundled under the massive advertising bridge, and waited patiently at traffic lights to cross over that equally massive bit of the road where Joyce Drive and Qantas Drive meet and unite (how very apt!).

Enjoying the exhilarating thrill that I always experience when I cross that section knowing that all eyes of waiting vehicles are on my beautiful bicycle, I joined the Domestic Airport traffic flow, and once round the bend near DHL terminal (formerly Yanda ... 'alas poor Yanda, I knew thee well'), I signalled and took the right lane which I knew would lead me to the half-a-dozen bike racks in the carpark near the Public Pick-up section.

Daylight, by now creeping into Sydney and turning charcoals into greys, was suddenly interrupted by the sharp blurt of a cranky car.

Initially thinking 'how rude' and ignoring it, after another sharp blurt I realised that the entitled sound probably belonged to a police car!

Was I in their way, I wondered to myself?

I tried to move over a bit only to then realise they actually wanted to talk to me. So manoeuvring to the least dangerous spot in this right hand lane flowing into the car-park (is there a 'least dangerous' spot in the right hand lane of an airport?), I commenced a 'chat' with the Australian Federal Police.

First up, they wanted to know what did I think I was doing ... and me saying 'riding a bicycle' did not allay their curiosity!

Apparently there were two things they knew that I was doing that were wrong:

1. riding without a helmet
2. riding on a road

I mentioned that I was entitled to ride on the road, to which the AFP driver of the AFP patrol car countered not without a helmet ...

So then I commenced my ususal 'police conversation' that I always seem to trot out for moments like these ... you know, how I was a campaigner actively trying to change the law, that I believed there was no evidence for such a law, that such a law had been a detrimental to Australia and an ugly deterrent to cycling here in this country, that we were on our own in the world (ooops almost forgot New Zealand - gave them a plug just in time), blah-de-blah-de-blah.

I also mentioned that I was due in Scone Local Court next Friday for a bicycle helmet matter, and that I was due to hear the magistrate's verdict via tele-link from the Adelaide Magistrate Court the following Monday (I may have got those dates muddled ... anyway I know that I mentioned Scone and Adelaide).

But it was the Christiania that had him (the main AFP protagonist) baffled.

'What,' he wanted to know, 'is your bike?'

Whilst explaining that it was a Christiania from the eponymous suburb in Copenhagen, he shared with me that he'd been to Copenhagen too, and had seen everyone cycling around. I put it to him that I bet he had not worn a helmet if and when he'd cycled around that beautiful city, to which he responded that it was not the law there ...

Sigh!

Is that all that stops people in Australia from not riding bicycles without helmets here?

This fatuous and unquestioning compliance?

Couldn't we just for once give some thought as to why we have such an unnecessary and restrictive law, and nobody else does?

Why don't we challenge our politicians and those numpty UNSW academics who so glibly dance to Big Oil's tune?

Anyway all that aside, next up and somewhat bizarrely, the policeman told me that he was going to photograph my bike so I told him that I was going to photograph him (hope his shot of my bike was better than my shot of him!)

He then asked me where I had come from and I told him from my sister's in Randwick but normally Scone (occasionally Newtown).

He wanted to know what roads I had been on that morning, so I mentioned that I'd 'bicycle-google-mapped' my journey to Domestic and that my sister had given me the heads up to override the first bit of google's suggestions by taking High Street in Randwick past the hospital and the University saving me unnecessary and crippling Randwick descents and ascents!

He wanted to know where I was off to now and I mentioned that I was on my way to visit my hubbie for his day off from his Flying Doctors' shifts in Broken Hill.

He then wanted to know what I was going to do with my bike whilst I was away. I told him I was going to leave it in the carpark and he told me I couldn't, and I told him that I could ... over at the bike racks ... I don't think he knew about those!!!!

He then somewhat parentally said that he hoped I had a good padlock to which I replied I did!

We finished with him mentioning that he would have to chat to his boss on what to do with me, said our goodbyes, and then I parked my bike and flew off to the RFDS base in Broken Hill.

Then on Sunday when I was somewhere in between Pro Hart's gallery and Broken Hill's Living Desert, he rang me to flag a meeting for an interview at some stage either at the airport or Newtown Police Station!!!! He would send me an email outlining all of this ... which he did.

Notwithstanding his pleasant and welcoming invitation to bring a lawyer and / or a friend, I know that I don't actually have to attend if I don't want to. But either way (whether I attend or not) I know that I am going to be booked, so I think I will meet him for the interview because I'm truly intrigued that the incredibly flat-out busy Australian Federal Police can be arsed to juggle 'unhelmeted-bicycling-middle-aged mum' duties along with their usual terrorism and drug smuggling duties.

Watch this space - I'll keep you posted!!!!!!!!

Oh, and #HelmetLawSucks

George Street's disruption is uber-great

Even in Australia the sun is finally setting on the car industry ... and boy oh boy it can't come soon enough.

Next Monday there will be no more cars travelling along Sydney's George Street because we are about to get light rail!!! It's going to take months and months and lots and lots of heartache but there is an unfurling sentiment amongst some of our politicians that the 'demand for public transport' must be met.

And furthermore motorists have been warned in no uncertain terms that if they park illegally anywhere in the CBD their cars will be towed. Yes they've been spoken to like they were naughty cyclists!!!! This is tough stuff for our all-hallowed car-users; the city is starting to become off limits to them and not a minute before time.

Of course it's going to be chaos because all those buses that usually travel down George Street are going to be either cancelled ad infinitum or rerouted to another congested CBD street. But notwithstanding all of that, George Street is trying to grow up and become a street like a street in other 21st century liveable cities.

And you know what else all of this means don't you! ... cycling is going to come into its own, and nothing even Duncan Gay can dream up is going to stifle people using bicycles now.

This is the disruption we've been waiting for!

Won't it be good to see Big Oil's polluting urban oil project in Sydney pruned.

Big Oil has not been a team player, and as each day goes Big Oil by proves over and over again how it can not be trusted with our cities and/or our planet.

To put it in a nutshell Big Oil has 'reached the limit of fossil fuel development.'

And you know what else!

I'm absolutely convinced it's only going to be a matter of time before we witness either a sudden erasure of our seriously dumb mandatory bicycle helmet law or a quiet behind-the-scenes one.

But either way most of the politicians who wilfully commissioned the helmet debate twenty plus years ago in order to pass our dumb helmet regulations are just about 'pushing-up-daisies' or almost, and the 'boffins' (bahahahaha) from UNSW's paid oil lobby are rapidly disappearing too into the swamps of their own self-created peripherality.

Yes sadly over the past two decades, they have wasted millions of our dollars on their futile 'studies' trying to prove helmet law is necessary, and yes that really sucks, but surely none of the rubbish that passed for law-shoring-up-research will wash any longer as we take to our bicycles in droves.

Our government's inaction, abetted by lazy Australian investigation, has been a danger to our society but ... there is a change in the air, and the likes of Duncan and Tony and Big Oil lovers from UNSW are so very yesterday and so very passés.

Au revoir and good riddance ...

... AND A BIG WELCOME TO THE NEW GEORGE STREET WHICH STARTS NEXT MONDAY!!!!!

A Mother's Love-Post for her daughter

Our beautiful baby number two is heading off into the next chapter of her life ... with someone truly lovely.

And ever since their 'breaking' of that wonderful news, my mind has shifted into an operational loop like a vintage movie projector, flickering erratically, both in colour and in black and white as I laboriously process her last 28 years, in a stock-take kind of a way.

And as I glimpse into their ever-evolving plans and dreams, I see that tiny little baby again with her little button nose, and that sweet little girl with her utter joy of learning, and that fierce young woman with her inate sense of justice, and then, like my laptop which permanently trips to Yahoo when I least expect it, my mind defaults to Hollywood musicals and I find myself humming:

"Is this the little girl I carried"

"I don't remember growing older, when did they?"

Get a grip, I tell myself sternly!

"Sunrise sunset, swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears"

Oh for goodness sake ... "but I just can't help it" ... and then I feel waves of great emotion with an intensity that make me feel both deleriously happy and downright scared, and I hope with a mother's fervour that the 'boat' they are setting off in for their new and exciting life-journey is a strong and sturdy one for the glorious, tumultous, dark, becalmed, diamante-sparkly ride that they will have in the waters of their 'sea of life.'

"They look so natural together, just like two newlyweds should be"

Love, kisses and congratulations ... forever xx
----------------
(With thanks to Miffy the maltoodle for her little 'riff,' to BN3 for his beautiful Skywood Springs photos, and to Cate Archibald for her photo of the two little cowgirls, and as always, lots of apologies to decent ukele players!)

Guilty or not guilty - check back here in 2 months

Some Australians are just plain beautiful ...


... but those who write ignorant rules & regulations are not.

And as a result of the latter's reckless behaviour I found myself back in a South Australian court this week to defend that very uniquely (well almost) Australian crime of riding a bicycle without a helmet.

With the usual initial palaver of:

'Are you sure you want to plead not guilty?'

'Really ... you're going to represent yourself?'

'Might be a good idea to speak to the duty solicitor & get some proper advice,'

... I eventually got on with presenting my submissions and leading evidence-in-chief (from me, myself & I) in a bid to persuade the court to find me not guilty on grounds of self-defence or, in the alternative, on grounds of the invalidity of regulation 256.

The three police officers who had booked me all those months ago (May 2014) were there outside the court scrubbed and unarmed, waiting to be called upon to read their statements if required to do so.

But seriously though what would have been the point? Apart from a mini-error in one them, all three of their statements basically said:

We saw the accused riding a bicycle (!) ... on an Adelaide street (!) ... without wearing a helmet (!)

BREAKING NEWS - SHOCK HORROR - THE SKY IS FALLING IN

So following the magistrate's suggestion, the police prosecutor and I got together for the usual argyg bargy of horse ... I mean fact-trading, and agreed to a few word redactions so the police statements could be submitted as evidence without requiring the police to take the stand ...

... I'm all heart!!!

Although I can't help but think why is there always an emphasis on me, the defendant, to be reasonable and not waste important people's (aka police) time?

I mean, I do actually get that and I appreciate that having three South Australian Police (SAPOL) officers twiddling their thumbs in court for a whole morning is a pretty dumb way for a state and its voting publice to use valuable law-enforcement resources ... but why's that my responsibility?

But remembering some wise words uttered by some wise law lecturer back in the day ... 'pick a better battle'... I did, 'woman-ed up' and got on with explaining how the prosecution had to negative the elements of my self-defence case (reasonable belief, proportionate response and immediacy of danger), that the current bicycle helmet law is not backed up by evidence, and that the only 'evidence' (hahaha) bandied around to support the maintenance of mandatory helmet compulsion is that put out by the University of New South Wales, strongly disputed by other academics both nationally and internationally and should never have been enacted into law, and why I believed that my matter was a strict liability one rather than an absolute liability one (although I'm firmly of the opinion that even an absolute liability matter ought to have 'wriggle-room' for self-defence and/or necessity) ...



... and that regulation 256 was invalid anyway ... sigh

I went over all the diffuse axonal injury, climate change, and our carbon footprint stuff and that we're living in a country with a Prime Minister who believes that coal is good for humanity, and that Tuvalu is sinking, and that as an older woman I'm oppressed by this law of oppression and privilege, and that cycling has been marginalised by the sport of cycling, and that instead of telling me off all the time, the community should be saying to me:

"Well done you - you're setting a marvellous example,"

... and that in The Netherlands my behaviour would be considered absolutely normal, and that anyway there were no powers in the Road Traffic Act right now to permit regulation 256.

And I 'plaintively' asked what was the point of prosecuting someone like me who, until Australian police spotted my conscientious-objection behaviour to this 'no-evidence-based-law,' had never really featured on their 'radar' before.

It's all so incredibly exhausting, and so self-defeating for me and our nation ... and in my opinion helmet law has exponentially nutured a hatred for cyclists whether we're helmeted or not ... I mean just check out 'Duncan' if you want any further illustration for that 'out-there' premise.



So what you may ask was the outcome of my trial in Adelaide?

Well, the magistrate decided to reserve her judgment for two months ... until Monday 26th October!

Meanwhile I have another date now for the other 'August trial date' that I had to 'vacate' because of BN2's admission as a lawyer to the Supreme Court to New South Wales!!!!



... Friday 23rd October in the Scone Local Court!

... effectively 'bookending' an engagement party in Sydney for that beautiful child of ours above.

Ahhhh - such is life in Australia.

Adelaide not Milano - such a trial

Unlike all these photos taken in Milan, I'm in Adelaide ...


... for a trial, later on today ...


... a trial for the wicked crime of riding a bicycle without a helmet


... because you see riding a bicycle without a helmet is forbidden in Australia


But maybe later on today, it won't be ...

BAHAHAHAHA ... oh ever the eternal optimist ... wish me luck, guys!

Sigh

To the Minister for NSW Automobile Dependency

Dear Duncan,

Until you start talking about people and not motorists, cyclists or pedestrians, Sydney will continue to be held back.

Until you focus on just people, congestion will continue to clog up our streets.

Until you embrace the concept that building roads is 'old school,' we are doomed to choke on bitumen and drown.

Roads are not the future, and you are being recklessly wilful pretending that they are.

Fossil-fuels are out just like 'fossil-politicians.'

History will not look kindly on you for perpetuating the vicious cycle of automobile dependency

Why do you remain so committed to your roads infrastructure plans?

Why do you make it so difficult for voters to walk around this city?

Why do you make it so difficult for voters to cycle around this city?

Why do you make it so difficult for voters to take public transport around this city?

What's in it for you that we don't know about?

Other transport and road 'leaders' from other global cities seem to want to make their cities liveable - you seem to want the reverse - and it's working for you, Duncan ... Sydney is in reverse.

Well done, you!

But transport and road leaders like you are supposed to be making it easier for people like me to live sustainably - and if you don't, Duncan, leaders like you will eventually be discarded.

Your current 'business-as-usual' approach to roads and transport is catastrophic, and a deadly battle for territory which in addition to being crazy and bad for the city's economics, is unconscionable in its contination of subsidies to oil-fuelled transport.

The Sydney you are envisaging is not the Sydney we want.

The Sydney you are envisaging is not a city about life.

So know this ... if your roads go ahead ... one day we will bury them - there is precedent.

Therefore, Duncan, think very carefully ...

... whilst our future lives are in your hands, your place in history is in ours.

Kind regards,
Sue (no-relation-to-tony) Abbott