NSW Nanny State makes regional roads more dangerous

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I'm afraid without an intervention, I am B-Double fodder on the Hume Highway at 90km/h!

I challenge John Graham, NSW Minister for Transport, and Jenny Aitchison, the NSW Minister for Roads and Minister for Regional Transport, to ride on a LAMS-approved motorcycle on the Hume Highway between Goulburn and Yass. I challenge them to maintain the required speed limit of 90km/h for motorcyclists on the learner and P1 licences. I challenge them to tell me how safe they feel as they are overtaken by a B-double semi-trailer in full swing.

My point is that slower speeds are not necessarily safer.

Not only is NSW subjecting novice motorcyclists to demanding conditions in the name of safety, but these same ministers are now considering reducing speed limits on rural and regional NSW roads to 70 to 90km/h down from 100km/h.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, NSW Nanny State makes regional roads more dangerous.

Faltering Teals prove there is no room to the left of the Liberals

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There’s no electoral success for parties positioning themselves to the left of the Liberals.

The Teals are learning a lesson from Australian political history. There’s no enduring electoral success for parties or groups positioning themselves to the left of the Liberals, even if they are well funded.

History is littered with well-intentioned ventures that tried and failed to carve out a viable space in that territory. The Australian Democrats, founded by ex-Liberal, Don Chipp, provide an important historical case study. And today, the so-called Teal independents offer a contemporary lesson, proving that even with deep pockets and initial momentum, a drift to the left leads to stagnation or worse.

In the Unfiltered nessletter, Alexandra Marshallk wrote:

Michael de Percy doesn’t think the Teals are going to ‘make it’ as a political movement. Standing to the left of the Liberals as a ‘conservative’ has never worked. There is a long history of minor parties and independents attempting to to this – all have failed.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Faltering Teals prove there is no room to the left of the Liberals.

Hold the PHON! One Nation is on the rise!

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In an historically sgnificant move, One Nation is removing the founder's name from its branding.

The announced change in name from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) to simply ‘One Nation’ is significant. Political parties that include the founder’s name come and go, but no active political party that includes the founder’s name has existed as long as the party formed by Pauline Hanson in 1997.

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say:

Michael de Percy is excited at the prospect of a new dawn for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, soon to be just One Nation. He sees the party’s opinion poll surge, and the prospect of Barnaby Joyce being part of a Hanson succession plan, as part of ON’s evolution from a minor to major party of the right. The sorry state of the Liberals certainly encourages such thinking, but those who want to see ON rise further should keep several things in mind. First, neither Hanson nor Joyce are an antipodean Nigel Farage. Second, opinion polls may have doubled ON’s primary vote since the May election, but they merely reflect disaffected Liberal and National voters parking their vote, more likely than not only temporarily. The polls are snapshots of what may be, not what will be. Third, if ON has realistic ambitions for greater things, much hard and detailed policy work needs to be done by ONs people to convince voters beyond its base that ON deserves the big time, let alone is ready for it. Hanson and her loyal team must prove themselves both capable and worthy of their poll surge to keep those parked voters until the one poll that counts. It’s easy to doubt they will, based on past performances: it’s up ON’s people to prove that supposition wrong.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Hold the PHON! One Nation is on the rise!

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