No more quad bikes on Australian farms?

Rigid new safety laws to blame

For primary producers who have lost loved ones in quad bike accidents, the current situation is complicated.

The conflict lies between providing a safe workplace and the essential role of the vehicles.

Farmer and grazier Warren Jonsson from Ravenshoe in Far North Queensland tragically lost his father in a quad bike rollover in the late 1990s.

But he said the new mandatory factory-fitted roll bars had seen big manufacturers exiting the Australian market.

"They've got to modify their whole production line just to suit probably 2 per cent of the market," he said.

"They've opted to not send quads to Australia; they said 12 months ago they'd pull out, and that's exactly what's going to happen."

"There's got to be some waiver where you can put an aftermarket structure, roll bar on the bikes," he said. "People have got to be a bit accountable for their own doings."

Barcaldine grazier David Counsell said he was not surprised by the industry move, but admitted the safety measures were necessary.

"They're in some cases a necessary farm vehicle, but they've got a terrible track record for safety," he said.

"There's a significant liability there … big companies look at their risk and make according decisions."

He said he only used his quad bike a couple of days a year, mainly in wet conditions. "When I've really got to go down and have a look along a boggy creek for bogged sheep or something like that, I'm inherently aware of the risks this vehicle presents," he said.

Mr Counsell said there had been fatalities in the region and everyone he had spoken to had a story about the dangers they presented. "Where there's smoke there's fire," he said.

"It's not just the fatalities; there's a lot of situations where people end up in hospitals or really close calls."
Exiting the Australian industry

Supplier Polaris has confirmed it will stop selling quad bikes and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV) in the Australian market this year.

Honda criticised the legislation and said it would force them to do the same in 2021, when the laws took full effect.

Polaris Australia's Alan Collins says safety measures will cause as many injuries as they save.

However, he said, it was not about the cost of fitting rollover safety measures. "We actually believe they cause as many injuries as they save," he said.

"There's no reliable science or data or evidence that we've seen that actually demonstrates that these devices offer any inherent safety value at all."

In October 2019, the Federal Government gave quad bike manufacturers two years to comply with new rollover protection legislation.

The safety standards required that manufacturers affix rollover safety stickers to new quad bikes within 12 months and install roll-over bars as standard within 24 months.

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Turn down tap on "environmental" water to save agriculture, say experts

Governments should slow down taking "environmental" water from the Murray-Darling Basin to save taxpayers $4bn and avoid further disrupting local communities, the head of a government-appointed panel says.

Farmer and agribusiness consultant Robbie Sefton said the inter-government agreement to take another massive slice of water from users to feed into the environment was beyond the ­capacity of local communities to absorb.

“If we slow it down, then communities can recover,” she said.

“Governments should match the pace of all further water recovery to the capacity of the system and basin communities to absorb and adjust to change.”

Ms Sefton said some scenarios modelled by experts appointed by the panel suggested a reduction in irrigation water usage could see dairy production in the southern basin decrease by 55 per cent, and rice fall by 32 per cent.

Her remarks came as Water Minister Keith Pitt released the panel’s draft report on social and economic conditions in the basin.

Ms Sefton’s views present a challenge to the government, which has until now said it wanted to proceed with all aspects of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in time for completion in 2024.

The report says plans to take more water from users in the Murray-Darling Basin to restore to the environment should proceed only if local communities supported them. It also calls for more funds for research and development, warning that productivity in some sectors of agriculture was declining.

Last year, then water minister David Littleproud commissioned the panel following widespread anger over the adverse impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Under the plan, the federal government has bought back water entitlements from irrigation farmers to restore to the environment, leading to a fall in agricultural production and causing economic decline in some towns.

An estimated 25 to 30 per cent has been taken from the available pool of water for irrigation.

The draft report, which followed extensive local meetings in the basin, found that current conditions were extremely challenging for many irrigation industries and dependent communities.

The report casts doubt on whether going forward with the plan would achieve its objectives.

“The panel considers there is insufficient evidence that future water recovery is being implemented to deliver water in the ­places needed to effectively achieve enhanced environmental outcomes, working river systems, and improved social wellbeing in the basin.

“There is growing recognition that the overall target for water recovery of 2750GL per year plus 450GL per year of efficiency measures cannot be achieved by 2024 without significant cost to the Australian taxpayer, and significant basin community dis­ruption,” the report says.

With the price of irrigation water very high, recovering the additional 250GL would cost more than $4bn, it says.

“We are certainly saying slow down the 450GL,” Ms Sefton said.

The report says there have been different social and economic outcomes across different parts of the basin. “Many smaller communities have less economic diversity and higher reliance on agriculture, and are more susceptible to shocks (such as drought) as a result,” it says.

Mr Pitt said while the government “remains committed to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan”, it would be “constantly monitored throughout its implementation”.

After seeking further input from interested parties, the panel will deliver its final report to Mr Pitt on April 30.

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Scott Morrison told to act on Greenie ‘lawfare’

The article below is one of many complaints about the costs and losses of Greenie activism in the courts.  Such activism goes on all the time and is huge in its financial impact.  You can hardly cut a tree down without being hit by an expensive lawsuit.

If a income-producing project is held up for some years in the courts, the income that might have been generated over that period is forever lost.  That is what economists call an opportunity cost.

But there are large explicit costs too.  Very often the property will have to be maintained in some way during the waiting period and if it has been acquired with the aid of a bank loan, interest payments will have to be made during the period.  Those can be big costs. The article below estimates that projects worth about $65bn have been delayed since 2000 in Australia but that figure probably does not include the costs incurred before the project gets started.

So what to do about it all?  The article below puts forward a number of relatiely mild suggestions but the most effective measure would be to reinstate the old legal principle that the costs follow the verdict.  If you cause a person costs and losses by a lawsuit against him and you lose the lawsuit, you should have to pay the costs incurred by your target in defending himself.

For some reason that basic principle of natural justice usually seems to get lost in environmental lawsuits.  The righteousness of the litigant is somehow taken as insulating him from the costs of his actions.  That must stop.  Greenie donors have deep pockets but even they might think twice when asked to pay the lost income of a big mining project (for instance).

At the moment a lot of lawsuits are terminated by an agreed settlement and that settlement usually specifies that both parties will bear their own costs.  Corrective legislation would have to bar settlents from including such a clause.  Strict liability would have to be enforced where environmental lawsuits are concerned.


The shire of Broome is calling on Scott Morrison to crack down on activist charities that are “destroying existing industries” and blocking job-creating resources projects in Western Australia.

The council, which is located in the Kimberley region wants regulatory changes to give ­“accountability requirements” to charities that are using regulatory measures to delay or deter new projects.

Under the changes proposed by the council, activist charities that engage in misleading and deceptive conduct should either lose their charitable status or face being fined.

Charities would also be required to declare their expenditure on political activities; the remuneration of management; their top 20 donors; all government grants received; and any ­financial support given to other organisations involved in political advocacy.

The council passed the ­motion in late February, calling on its chief executive, Sam Mastrolembo, to make the demands in a letter to the Prime Minister.

“They are able to engage in unethical conduct because there is very little regulation holding them to account,” the council wrote in its draft letter.

“Should a public company or pastoralist act in the same manner and spread false information to the public, there would be considerable financial penalties and reputational damage. Not so for these charitable groups.”

The Australian revealed last week that “green” activists had used environmental laws to delay about $65bn worth of projects since 2000. The legal proceedings from conservation and green groups have forced companies into court for more than 10,000 days in the past 20 years.

In the past four years, the activist groups have used the federal environmental protection act to cause delays to seven major projects in regional areas, including the $16.5bn Adani coalmine in Queensland.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt told The Australian he would support any move to stop green groups using excessive legal claims to delay projects.

“People in regional areas are sick of seeing significant, job-­creating resources projects delayed by court action launched by activists with no connection to their area,” he said.

The development of the $31bn Browse Basin has faced delays for more than seven years after the Supreme Court of WA upheld legal protests from the Wilderness ­Society.

The development of the massive gas field is unlikely to start until 2021.

The council’s draft letter says activist charities are causing unemployment by “destroying legitimate industries that are the lifeblood of regional towns”.

“These activists are causing tax collection to decrease by destroying existing industries and preventing new tax-paying industries from being created,” the draft letter says.

“These groups are funded by faceless, unaccountable billionaires and millionaires, many of whom don’t live in Australia.

“Those whose livelihoods the activists destroy or disadvantage have no means to see who pulls the strings in the background.”

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A woman who decided to clean her Sydney train seat to protect herself from the coronavirus has shared the grim results – and it’s eye-opening

We’ve never been as aware of our surroundings as we are now. But in a bid to keep her personal space as germ free as possible amid the coronavirus panic, one woman has discovered just how filthy an everyday space really is.

Taking to Facebook, the woman explained she boarded a train from the Blue Mountains in NSW with a bottle of high-grade cleaner and decided to clean her seat,

The concerned woman didn’t stop at just one seat though, deciding to wipe down each of the cushioned seats in her carriage.

“I felt bad, just looking after my health. No one was around so I wiped every seat and handle on the upper deck of my carriage. Look at those seats shine,” she said.

However, it wasn’t her kind act that caught the attention of the members in the Mums Who Clean Facebook group – it was the “disgusting” state she found her cloths in after cleaning the chairs. Sharing a photo of her dirty cloth beside a clean one, people were horrified.

“I can’t believe they wouldn’t clean our trains properly, look at how dirty your cloth got,” one said.

“This post needs to be sent to the department that’s responsible for the cleaning of trains! Especially the comparison photo.” a concerned user declared.

“Yuk, yuk, yuk, this proves you shouldn’t catch public transport,” another said.

Others praised the woman for being so thoughtful during a time when others were being “selfish” and only thinking about themselves.

“This is exactly what the world needs to see, instead of being driven by fear, you lead with love. You might have saved a life today,” one said.

“Oh bless you that is so kind! another added.

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 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here