Your views: on borders, fines, speeding and casualisation
Today, readers comment on a timeline for Victorians to enter SA, fines and debts, monitoring motorists, and insecure employment.
Commenting on the story: No quick SA entry likely for Victorians
I’m afraid that this all sounds like arbitrary, non-evidence based decision-making.
Opening the border with NSW with no quarantining just days after their last case made sense and has not resulted in any additional cases in SA. Therefore the experiment has been performed and has shown a good outcome, and it is not logical to deny the same opening to Victorians, or South Australians in Victoria, now that Victoria has no cases.
In particular, the envisaged 28 day wait with no cases, with a quarantine period upon entry, is risk-averse to the point of ridiculous. Further, it betrays a lack of plan going forward to deal with sporadic cases as we open to the wider world, as we must.
The alternative is to commit us all to a Covid-free backwater with a broken economy and all that that means, in terms of education, housing, healthcare, etc. – David Findlay
It’s frustrating and disappointing that Victoria will not be given the same courtesy shown to other states (New South Wales in particular) when it comes to open cross-border travel.
There was one day a few weeks ago where NSW’s COVID case number was higher than Victoria’s, and yet our border was still completely open to NSW. I understand the hesitation due to administrative failures made by the Victorian government, lack of confidence in effective contact tracing, and the higher rates of community transmission. However I feel like the 28 rather than 14 days of no community transmission is extreme.
The Vic-SA border is one of the busiest in the country, and there are hundreds of families waiting patiently having been separated from their loved ones interstate for months. I myself am in a long-term relationship that is long distance – he lives in outer Melbourne. Pre-COVID times we would fly to see each other at least once a month, and the last time I saw him in person was March 15th. You can only imagine the emotional and mental toll this has taken on us (and we are lucky neither of us live overseas).
I am grateful for the situation here in SA but it still breaks my heart that I cannot experience this freedom with the person I love most. Yesterday’s lifting of restrictions provided a glimmer of hope I could see him for Christmas but reading this article today has now made me doubt. Unfortunately, it’s out of our control and the only thing we can do along with everyone else in our situation is ‘wait and see’. – Jessica Bonsell
Commenting on the story: SA debt collectors busy again over unpaid fines as total hits $322m
We have recently returned to SA from overseas and I am quite frankly staggered by the dependence on fines for the state budget. Like many actions taken by ‘well-meaning’ politicians they fall short on what the original intent was, unless their intent was fundraising.
The very fact you are writing about collection of fines as an issue is a certain giveaway that the purpose of the legislation has gone awry. Soon there will be legislation to legislate how the fines must be collected and there will be yet another layer of bureaucracy to cope with.
My attention has been drawn to the fines for traffic violations. The current enforcement of road laws is very rigorous, to say the least. The state has established an authoritarian approach to road safety, theoretically, that quite obviously doesn’t work given the number of fines issues for traffic violations.
The reliance on automated enforcement has escalated in the past several years along with reductions in speed limits in many locations. Additionally the variation of speed limits within certain areas creates situations where drivers are focusing on the speed limit rather than the traffic conditions around them, which has an effect opposite to the one intended. If the claim that these actions were going to improve road safety they quite obviously haven’t.
In my memory the number of people who lose their life as the result of traffic accidents has reduced from about 300+ a year to current levels of around 100. This has largely been achieved through improved vehicle safety and appropriate use of traffic controls. However, there are many examples of traffic management that are simply unnecessary.
The state should be forced to show the effectiveness of each change in traffic management, especially where claims of improved safety are made. I find the actions of the committee which implements these changes is much like insurance companies who claim they need to raise insurance rates but never have to prove their actuarial calculations were accurate.
We need a thorough review of the system which has had its focus directed to revenue raising rather than true safety improvements. – Robert Sibson
Commenting on the story: What we know today, Tuesday October 27
“A police blitz on speeding on the Northern Connector between Dry Creek and Waterloo Corner netted more than 2000 speeding drivers including one clocked at 209km/h”.
Why would anyone be surprised? Speeding and dangerous driving is a daily occurrence on this freeway, every hour of the day. The road is designed to carry traffic at very high speeds. Most of the vehicles using the northern connector are designed to travel at very high speeds.
Simple answer is remove the need for number plates. Invite Lot 14 boffins to come up with a vehicle tracking technology that would require every vehicle in the State to be fitted with a tracking device. The device would give SAPOL real-time data on the vehicles whereabouts, its speed and if it is currently registered. Fines can be directly debited to a bank account. Or the technology can shut the engine down and a tow truck called to confiscate the vehicle. The technology will reduce stolen car incidents and reduce the road toll.
Flight tracker does the same thing. Let’s create Drive tracker. All part of living in a safe and smart State. – Steven Harrison
Commenting on the story: Pandemic exposes universities’ dirty secret
Over-casualisation has become rife in most sectors; hospitality, retail, aged care to name a few.
It has become entrenched because it is easier, more flexible and cheaper for executives to manage their workforce (rosters, leave, programming etc), which, unfortunately creates a necessity for a lot of casual (and permanent part-time) workers to work multiple jobs. Look at the problems with aged care workers working at multiple facilities at the beginning of this pandemic.
The only way to find out the full extent is to gather (or extract) the data in the Australian Bureau of Statistics monthly Labour Force Survey. – Garry Shearing