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Lifejacket changes are more "nanny state" regulation: Ingram

By Craig Ingram - 20th October 2005 - Back to News

Mr Ingram said today that this was another example of Victoria’s ‘nanny state’ mentality, imposing regulations on the majority to address the inappropriate behaviour and stupidity of a minority.

"My comments on these proposals are not just as an active recreational angler, but also as a professional fisherman, with 15 years’ experience operating in Bass Strait," Mr Ingram said.

"I do not believe that government should legislate or regulate for fools.

"This policy seems to be designed to make all boat operators -- the vast majority of whom are responsible mariners -- change their practices for the small minority who are irresponsible and continue to endanger themselves and others on the water.

"The discussion paper highlights that in 11 of the fatal incidents in recent years, the boat operator was in breach of current boating regulations because a personal floatation device (PFD) was not available for the occupants on the vessel."

Mr Ingram said the document also highlights that in the past 18 months, 225 incidents were detected where PFDs were not available.

"In my submission I have made a number of objections to the requirements for compulsory wearing of PFDs on vessels under 4.8m including: inconvenience for anglers fishing on the drifting or with an electric motors; the cost of replacing large bulky PFDs with easy-to-wear models; and the floatation and maintenance requirements of the self inflatable PFDs.

"The regulatory impact statement paper indicates that the majority of recreational boating incidents were caused through either inexperience or poor judgment.

"Clearly, this is an indictment of the government’s licensing program, where licences are granted on the passing of a multiple choice test and not based on experience on practical knowledge.

"The introduction of these proposed regulations has been compared with the legislation to require the compulsory wearing of seat belts. This is not a fair or similar comparison. The data and research conducted on the introduction of compulsorily wearing of seatbelts in Australia established that seatbelts saved 1400 lives in the first six years and a decline in injury rates of between 20 to 30%. This needs to be considered with the fact that still one in five people killed on Victorian roads are not wearing seatbelts.

"The expected savings and benefit to the community from the introduction of the compulsory wearing of life jackets is, in my view, extremely minimal and does not warrant the cost to recreational boating community.

"Victoria is fortunate to have excellent waterways for boating enthusiasts to explore and enjoy, and it supports a vibrant boating industry.

"Whilst I am a strong advocate of marine safety, I do not believe that imposing cumbersome restrictions on the majority of the boating public who are responsible boat operators and understand the risks that they are exposed to is a move in the right direction", Mr Ingram concluded.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: support@gippsland.com

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