This is from Ricky Muir's web page.
Comments to the page are closed but you can email him on Email:
senator.muir@aph.gov.au
Dont bother ranting on this thread, sent the senator an email & then copy the email as a reply on this thread.
its interesting that we have a mod on this site who is supposedly involved with this party but we dont see much of this stuff on the site.
Have you ever experienced that moment where something which was intended to be a good idea had a different result than you thought? Perhaps for example, you put 3.9 diff ratios in your car to help get it off the line quicker on the drag strip, only to discover that you now have major traction issues on the launch pad and actually lose time.
Maybe you converted your 4x4 to a straight gas turbo set up so you have a little more power for when it is needed, only to discover you no longer have the range you need to do the trip you have been planning from Marysville, through to Woods Point to Wonnangatta Station before ending up at Dargo. These are known as unintended consequences, and by now I imagine you are reflecting against plenty of personal experiences where this has occurred to you.
To briefly define unintended consequences, it is outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action.
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Recently I was reading an article on the ABC website titled “Off-road motorists' continued use of Tarkine tracks makes farce of ban, Greens senator says”, which can be found here
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-1...r-says/6478178
The article refers to the Arthur Pieman area on Tasmania’s West Coast. Some may remember back in 2012, despite a rally of 4,000 people in Smithton, 15 tracks in the area were closed off. Environmental concerns and damage to historic Aboriginal middens were part of the push for the closures.
In 2014 Adam Brooks from the Tasmanian Liberal Government had made reference to re-opening the tracks and noted that in the previous two years numbers of people visiting the area had dwindled which had a flow on effect to local businesses.
Now in 2015, I read that Tasmanian Greens Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson has flown over the area in a helicopter and “saw what looked like deliberate vandalism of areas of cultural significance to the Aboriginal community that had been fenced off.” He has been quoted as saying “The fences are there to prevent anyone from accessing specifically the dunes at Ordinance Bay, which is the largest midden site in the world, and those fences have been ripped down. The entire midden site has been criss-crossed with four-wheel-drive tracks."
Without getting into a debate about presumptions in quotes such as “saw what looked like deliberate vandalism of areas of cultural significance to the Aboriginal community that had been fenced off.” Or the title of the article which could be easily misconceived as sensationalism towards off-road enthusiasts, let’s take a step back and look at the situation. Firstly, anti-social behaviour is simply not acceptable. There are plenty of 4WD clubs and groups working with the appropriate government bodies to assist in maintenance and management of many forests roads, tracks, historic sites, campgrounds and more who are willing to push for better bush ethics aimed at the people who do the wrong thing. There are plenty of non-club associated people with the same passion and interest who also do the same. So the notion of giving an image that this behaviour is that of all off road enthusiast is simply untrue, unfair and sensationalism at best. It is about as fair as saying all Greens are guilty of vandalising the property of others that don’t agree with their philosophy. Such as vandalism to the NFF headquarters recently in light of allegations of live animal export cruelty. The reality is we know it was a minority in both these cases and it is completely unacceptable to tar those who do the right thing with the same brush as those who don’t! Now, back to the definition of unintended consequences that I mentioned earlier: “outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action.”
The decision back in 2012 to close tracks off in the Arthur Pieman area due to the actions of a minority, rightly or wrongly, would have been made with the intention of having a positive impact. And I agree, if people are damaging middens and deliberately damaging tracks it needs to be stamped out. However, the unintended consequence is that the law abiding majority are locked out. The people who are willing to try to educated those doing the wrong thing, willing to take their registration details down, photograph and report wrong doers are now doing what they do best, obeying the law and staying out, even if it deeply upsets them. On the other hand, the minority who were breaking the law in the first place are doing no different than what they were doing in the first place, breaking the law. What is different now is that they are continuing to do the wrong thing without the law abiding and or government departments being present to hold them to account.
By locking out the good guys, have we unintentionally created an environment safe for wrongdoers that enables bad behaviour?
Further, perhaps I say this with my guard up, but I commend the Tasmanian Government for acknowledging that closing the access in the area had a negative impact on local businesses. The reality is, 4x4, dirt bike, camping, hunting, hiking, bird watching, historians, photographers and the other many different reasons why people choose to go into the our bush, create a wealth of economic stimulus especially in the smaller rural and regional areas near where they choose for their destination to take them.
The thing that many people who are not into the off-road scene are not aware of is that there is a huge growing number of people who are willing to push better off road etiquette, whether it is by having a conversation in a camp ground, vocalising it online in papers or magazines, and by working with Government departments to help maintain access to our land.
I am not suggesting we do not responsibly manage these areas but I am suggesting that by closing areas off, even with the best intention, we may well be unintentionally causing far worse damage than what was happening in the first place both environmentally and economically. Not to forget the wellbeing and emotions of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who would much rather stare at the stars by a campfire listening the owls hoot, wombats grunt or deer honk, rather than bask in the energy intensive bright city lights.
Law enforcement should be focused on those doing the wrong thing. We should be looking for initiatives that capture those who do the wrong thing but still enable those who do the right thing to continue to do so. Not just creating some blanket policy that bans the law abiding from enjoying their lifestyle because of the actions of a few.
How are our future generations supposed to respect or flora and fauna if they are not allowed to get out and see and enjoy it, to be taught to respect it?
It was the love of the outdoor lifestyle and poorly targeted policy that got me involved in politics in the first place. You can rest assured that I will not be sitting quiet when it comes to the future of our outdoor lifestyle.
Track closures
Snowing JKU
Baby Vader
Grand Wookie Jedi
