Sentenced though not custodially ... phew

(My heartbeat before sentencing!!!)


And so it came to pass that a sentence was handed out on Monday by an Adelaide Court and was simultaneously received by a Broken Hill Court via video-link.

Plugged in, I sat by myself in the Broken Hill courtroom until the Adelaide magistrate appeared on my courtroom television.

After a brief recap from her and the police prosecutor, I was then given a chance to make submissions regarding my take on things. So organising my thoughts under what I thought were relevant headings, I basically said the following:

Climate Change
I can no longer continue to observe the havoc that my capitalist lifestyle is causing without trying to do something to mitigate it. The catastrophic impacts of climate change are felt in many places around the world ... just look at Kirabati and Tuvalu ... and even the flooding in the north of England has been hailed as a consequence of climate change. In addition we also know that Greenland's ice will disappear sooner than later - it has been reported in the last couple of days that scientific predictions regarding the ice loss have been grossly underestimated. Even here in Broken Hill the impact of climate change is being acutely felt ... the town water supply is running out.

World's Children
I have responsibilities to my children, and all of our children, and our children's children too - I cannot just sit by and pass the burden of climate change onto them.

COP21 (Paris)
Whilst I love this country, there is no denying that Australia is an outlier in terms of transitioning to green transport and our responsibilities to the environmnent. As you would be aware, this week global leaders are in Paris attempting to agree to workable solutions for mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change. But already we in Australia have been let down by our representatives. Take Malcolm Turnbull, he completely lacked the courage to sign onto a Kiwi initiative with regards to guaging our carbon footprint, deforestation and materials sold to other nations and what is actually our true total ... and all because of a Faustian bargain the Liberals have with the Nationals and farmers and miners to maintain outdated fuel subsidies.

Victimless Crime
My crime is a victimless one. The benefit/cost analysis suggests that cycling is 20-30 times more beneficial to society than harmful. So whilst I may have been found guilty of breaking the letter of the law, I was not causing any personal or social harm, and therefore perhaps I should not be punished. These are my submissions on sentencing ... thank you.

So after me wrapping up my bit, the magistrate reciprocated with thanks, had a brief little chin-wag with the prosecutor, and then launched into the business of 'fitting' the 'punishment into the crime,' or the 'crime into the punishment.' At one point she mentioned the possibility of imposing a penalty without recording a conviction as set out in s16 of the Crimimal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988 (South Australia) but she was not completely satisfied that I was not likely to commit the offence again. She asked me my thoughts on the subject, and I said that it would be less than honest to say I would not ride a bicycle again without a helmet in Adelaide, and that there was every chance that I would come back to Adelaide and join in with another bicycle helmet protest ride no doubt with a police escort again just like before.

She thanked me for my frankness, formally declined to grant me the 'legislated leniency' on the basis of my potential recidivism, and got on with dishing up the fines and costs for me to fix up in the next 28 days:

$$$ Helmet fine
+
$$$ Victim compo
+
$$$ prosecution costs
+
$$$ court costs =

GRAND TOTAL ... $560.00

So there we have it ... guilty as charged, with criminal conviction and punished accordingly.

So much for encouraging 'green transport' ... so much for innovation ... so much for legislative perspective ... but hey, this is Australia

Sigh

Wilcannia: free from helmets & the AFP

In a couple of hours I will be sentenced for my Adelaide crime of riding a bicycle whilst not wearing a bicycle helmet.

I am in Broken Hill and given that I have brought my 93 year old mother-in-law out here to visit her son (my man!), the Adelaide Court Registry agreed to my proposal that I be sentenced via video-link in the Broken Hill Local Court ... thus in just under two hours I will present myself to the Broken Hill Court personnel to be wired up and/or whatever to hear what the Adelaide magistrate has to say.

Will I be fined?

Will I be sent to prison?

Or will I be allowed the leniency of a dismissal?

A massive fine?

Court costs?

Sigh ... it is all so exhausting

How long will Australia continue with this ridiculous criminalising of cyclists who wish to cycle like cyclists around the rest of the world?

Oh dear ... sigh ... I've said this before and I'll say it again:

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT WEARING A BICYCLE HELMET MAKES YOU SAFER ON THE ROADS ...

BICYCLE HELMET LAW IS A BIG OIL DETERRENT TO KEEP CYCLISTS FROM CYCLING ON THE ROADS ...

BICYCLE HELMET LAW IS PERPETUATED BY ACADEMIC CHEER-LEADERS SITTING IN BIG OIL FUNDED CHAIRS IN VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES AROUND AUSTRALIA (think UNSW just for starters) ...

Anyway, I'll keep you posted ... or one of my family will if the worse comes to worst ... sigh

Oh and before I go, I must mention that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) called me last night to mention that after all their 'tax-payer-funded-gymnastics' entailing calling me in to their AFP offices at the International Airport in Sydney for interviewing and videoing purposes for my Sydney crime of riding a bicycle whilst not wearing a bicycle helmet, they have decided that they will book me after all.

So here we go again.

#HelmetLawSucks #DownUnderDumbness

Contact the Premier of New South Wales - Ok ... done

Apparently Mike Baird is committed to establishing an open and accessible Government.

Apparently I can send the Premier questions, comments, concerns, well-wishes or requests, or by completing the form on his website.

So I did and here is the gist of what I filled out and submitted:

Outline of issues you wish to discuss
First I am no libertarian

I believe in regulations where they are required

I applaud current federal gun laws and plain packaging laws for cigarettes

Bicycle helmet law is flawed

Australia is one of the few countries that has bicycle helmet law and yet we are one of the most dangerous countries for cycling

Numbers for commuter cyclists have dwindled over the past 20 years and this has made the roads more dangerous for cyclists

Expert national and international academics are in dispute over the merits of helmet law

When the experts cannot agree there ought not to be a law requiring compulsion

Bicycle helmet law has criminalised cycling

I fear I will be served a custodial sentence before too long with my current conscientious objection

Cycling is a good activity for health, helps reduce traffic congestion, and is a non-polluting green mode of transport

I would like to discuss revocation of regulation 256 of the Road Rules

Such an action on the part of a politician would make them a leader in the climate change challenge


Details of prior discussions with Government Representatives
I have met with George Souris to discuss this issue on many occasions ... to no avail.

I and approximately 29 other people once delivered a petition to John Ajaka after we had cycled from Sydney Town Hall to Parliment House with a police escort.

On another occasion, myself and Dr Paul Martin (specialist anaesthetist, Brisbane) and Prof Chris Rissel (academic, University of Sydney), met with John Ajaka to discuss the bicycle helmet law issue. At this meeting we supplied him with relevant facts and evidence pertaining to the failure of bicycle helmet law. Nothing happened

Please meet me - I cannot buy your time, or donate, but I have lived in NSW for 33 years tomorrow.

-------------------------------

So there you have it ... what do think the chances are that his press secretary (or whoever) will give me a bell and say:

"Mrs Abbott, when would be convenient with you? The Premier is dying to meet you!"

Sigh

There is no Planet B - from the London Climate March

Armed and ready to go, we joined 600,000 people on global streets last Sunday to tell our leaders that enough is enough and that we won't continue any longer with 'business as usual'


In London 50,000 people marched with us, and there were plenty of inspiring 'clarion calls' and 'memes' for us all to note right now [see some in the italics below]


'The whole world is watching you' [from Greenpeace]


'Keep coal in the hole and oil in the soil' [from The Guardian]


And this is why we're fighting and taking to the streets; our world's children ... we must must think of their futures and of their children's futures too


Sisters-in-arms .. inspiring chums


'Badger' above is right


Babes-in-arms


'Do something, global leaders' [from Children Against Climate Change]


Tum-ti-tum


'This climate crisis has names and addresses' [from Friends of the Earth]


Awwwwwwwwww - support from all quarters


'Land of the buck ($$$)
'Which don't give a fuck
'We have to wake up!' [from Kate Tempest, unblievable rapper poet]


'How brave to pass on the buck (blame) to the unborn' [from Charlotte Church]


'There ... Is ... No ... PlanetB,
'ThereIsNoPlanetB' [from the crowd and a drummer]


'David Cameron is taking a wrecking ball to environmental policy' [from Caroline Lucas MP]


And added to the climate change violence, Cameron has an unconscionable plan to murder Syrians - how can he contemplate such madness?

There is much to be done and we can no longer turn our heads away and pretend that there isn't.

So wake up, global leaders, and sort out something useful in Paris ...

... and ...

DON'T BOMB SYRIA

The Nanny State Games

(Image: The Spectator)


A few people have asked me why I didn’t do a submission for the Nanny State Inquiry given that on the surface I must appear a most likely submission-writing candidate ... here's why:

I just cannot reconcile myself with Senator David Leyonhjelm's aversion to renewables nor his commitments to Big Tobacco and Big Guns … there plain and simple.

Sigh.

A libertarian I am not!

In fact in my view this 'parliamentary' theatre-sports exercise of David Leyonhjelm's is nothing more than a right-wing 'smoke & mirrors' ploy to herald in the relaxing of gun laws, the reversing of cigarette plain packaging laws ... oh and course most importantly of all ... to get Senator Leyonhjelm re-elected.

What a shame that this opportunity to discuss bicycle helmet law has been polluted by a numpty-politician planning to use the interest engendered as a sweetener for his particularly nasty winding-back of some of the good stuff Australian Parliaments have actually done.

Right now what we really need is a serious and complete overhaul of how we elect our senators - that this man may end up having the leverage to enact his libertarian shite is incomprehensively scary.

Politicians should fight our wars

In various cememteries ...


... dotted around the world ...


... lie some of the men in my family...


A great-grandfather ...


A grand-father ...


An uncle ...


But not my father ...


... because when it came to be his turn to die for his country ...


... he was killed closer to England ...


... than these final resting places ...


... and my mother flatly refused for him to be interred in the military cemetery on offer or any military cemetery whatsoever for that matter.

What does it mean to claim that the names of the dead military men in my family or anybody's family 'liveth' ... for surely if they did there would be an end to the state grooming of killers and the killed.

I hate Armistice Day (and I hate Anzac Day too) ... and I won't wear a poppy.

Lest we forget ... although maybe it might help if we did.

Prime Minister, isn't it time helmet laws were axed so the AFP don'thave to waste their time and taxpayers' dollars interviewing me?

 

So I arrived at International Airport (Sydney) on Monday with plenty of time before my flight to England because I had a rendezvous-vous with the Australian Federal Police!

Following instructions in the email sent to me last week, I headed to 10 Arrivals Court, Level 3, and was collected in the foyer by a young policewoman and shown to a rather austere waiting area where I was told to take a seat. 

Because I had arrived early and the interviewing AFP constable was running a touch late, I had plenty of opportunity to take in my surroundings, and I must admit that I approved of the minimalist decor, I liked the rather bare glass wall cabinet, and I approved of the what-I-would-call  'airforce blue' fitted carpet throughout ... 

'Hmmmn,' I said to myself, 'glad to see my tax-dollars so tastefully spent!'

And then my AFP interviewer was there, and it was through the locked doors and into an interviewing room for the interview.

Housekeeping first ... explanation of the activities to come, I could have a drink any time I wanted one, I could have a lawyer or a friend, I didn't have to be there (even though they'd come up with the idea!)

No thank you, no, no, yes, were my responses.

Then they asked if I had any questions to which I asked if I could take their photo ... no was their answer!

And we were off !

$$$ Rights read out to me

$$$ Re-visited whether I understood that I could have a Lawyer or a friend

$$$ Cautioned that anything I said could be used as evidence against me ... and 'for me,' I inserted, which I think surprised them (oh and btw,  you all sponsored two AFPs to interview me for the approximately 40 mins that I was there!!!)

$$$ Checked up on my address, my age, my nationality, my living, where I was born, where I'd cycled in the world (maybe I volunteered that bit?!), what route I had taken on that 'Domestic Airport' day when they had come across me at dawn, description of my Christiania, how many bikes I had, what types, had I cycled to the airport for my London flight

Somewhere along the way I mentioned some of my previous 'non-helmet-bookings' both in NSW and South Australia, and that I thought the law was flawed, contradictory and confusing, that existing evidence was divided into two camps, that Australian academics wedded to mandatory helmet laws were sponsored by Big Oil as evidenced by the 'money' splashed out to further their position (say for instance that 'NRMA' chair at UNSW and 'Honda' sponsorship of medical case studies at St George's Hospital) ... I even mentioned Velo City conferences in despatches which I then had to explain to them ... which then led to mention of Adelaide and the Adelaide protest rides with unhelmeted cyclists and police escorts!

Somewhere along the way I mentioned in a very young life I'd been a student nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and they jumped on that and asked what was my opinion on all the cycling accidents that I would have seen in that life to which I replied that was irrelevant because I was so very junior then and such a very far cry from an expert that no-one would have been interested in my opinion, and that anyway when I'd done my 'accident & emergency secondment' back then I'd seen more knifings than any bicycle mishaps.

Much more was said and chatted about and it's all on tape for maybe a future court case, and I remember telling them that I have a responsibility to participate in this democracy of ours, and as a participant it is my responsibility to object to flawed laws ... and mandatory helmet laws fitted within that category.

I know at some point I mentioned my blog, and that the purpose of it was mainly to rail against the Australian compulsion to have to wear a helmet when cycling ... I also added that the lead AFP interviewer's legs had already featured on it - later he mentioned he would have to check out my blog for 'malice'! ... hope it's free of that!!!

And then it was time to leave Sydney and its AFP so that I could catch my plane to London and its Bobbies, 

... and you know after I've posted this recount of my arvo with the AFP I'm going to take a Boris Bike from Liverpool Street Station (where I'm about to leave my suitcase in 'Left Luggage') to the Science Museum in South Kensington because I have been hanging out to see the Ada Lovelace exhibition and as luck would have it, it's on right now!!!

#HelmetLawSucks