People are dead because of road accidents and speed is being blamed as the primary cause. Maybe it's time to have a long, hard look at the real reason !
Ever since the first cars appeared on our roads, governments - both state and Federal - and both brands of politics - have used them as a milch cow to attract money for treasury coffers.
Everything to do with cars - and the people who drive them - is heavily taxed. We pay tax on driving licenses. Registration. Insurance. Sales tax on the vehicles itself. Tax on spare parts and servicing. Tax on tyres - and the biggest tax of all - tax at confiscatory levels on the fuel that we need to make them work !
Only a tiny portion of all that tax money is returned to motorists to deliver better, safer roads !
Every year the number of car registrations increases and more cars and trucks compete to travel on our network of sub standard roads.
The Hume highway connects this country's biggest cities - and yet it is not possible to travel between Sydney and Melbourne on a divided, multi-lane highway because sections are still a two lane road.
We face speed restrictions and all manner of new laws designed to make our unworkable roads manage. What we are not getting is the money we pay as motorists put back into providing a safe road network.
Our roads are already at crisis point, and there is no chance that the rate new drivers buy cars and become motorists will decrease. The only way we will get relief is if we get tough with both our state and Federal governments - and give them an option.
Fix our roads - or we hand you a pink slip.
It's time every tax dollar derived from transport went to create a national road system to keep the wheels of commerce turning - and to make driving a matter of safe arrival - and that won't happen until motorists deliver a message that no government can ignore !
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