Liberal Democrats draft specific motorcycle policy

The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a motorcycle-specific policy, a whole page on their website devoted to motorcycles and a motorcycle policy statement on YouTube.

Among their motorcycle policies are no front number pates, parking facilities, reduced tolls and taxes, use of bus lanes, motorcycle-friendly roads, lane filtering and deregistered rider training so it is cheaper.

 

They also support a more commonsense approach to setting speed limits and tolerance for low-speed violations.

The above video, featuring motorcycle rider and NSW Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm, was posted in 2014 and has had almost 9000 views on YouTube.

Their lead Senate candidate in Queensland is party president Gabriel Buckley who was instrumental in organising the protests against the VLAD “anti-bikie” legislation also rides a Yamaha XV250 bobber.

Gabe says the Liberal Democrats do not have “career politicians” on their team.

“We have vets, mechanics, engineers, small business owners, computer programmers and the like,” he says.

“Real people who have real experience getting things done in the real world. We understand that the best way for the government to help is often to simply get out of the way.

“We have a long history of standing up for those who the government decides are on the margins of society. Sporting shooters, four-wheel drive enthusiasts and, of-course, motorcyclists.

“We won’t just stand with you, we’ll ride with you. We’ve been heavily involved in protesting the appalling legislation aimed at motorcyclists recently and will continue to fight for your right to ride.”

SA Liberal Democrats Senate candidate Michael Noack says they are still finalising their candidates, but believes there may be more riders among them, including a potential SA candidate.

Liberal Democrats motorcycle policy from their website:

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) believes those who choose to use motorcycles and scooters should not be discouraged by government policies.The use of motorcycles and scooters is a matter of individual choice. So long as nobody else is likely to be harmed, it is not acceptable for the government to interfere in it.Motorcycles and scooters represent an economical, convenient and environmentally favorable means of transport that also place fewer demands on roads and other infrastructure.The LDP will implement the following measures:

• Ensure that specific facilities for motorcycles and scooters are included in public parking.
• Reduce taxes, tolls and other charges on motorcycles and scooters to no greater than a quarter that of cars.
• Allow motorcycles and scooters to use public transport corridors such as bus lanes.
• Permit motorcycles and scooters to filter between lanes of slow moving traffic.
• Create refuge areas for motorcycles and scooters in front of cars waiting at intersections to facilitate faster traffic flow.
• Ensure motorcycle and scooter safety is given the same priority as car safety in road design and construction.
• Encourage voluntary adoption of European CE standards of safety clothing for motorcyclists, accompanied by accurate labelling.
• Remove obstacles to the establishment of accessible rider training courses at moderate cost.
• Remove any requirement for front number plates.
• Permit novice riders to travel at the posted speed limit.
• Allow parking on the footpath where it is wide enough.

These measures are additional to the LDP’s policy on traffic laws, which includes:

• Set speed limits at, or slightly above, the 85th percentile. This would result in an increase of 10-30km/h in the limit on roads where drivers feel it is safe to travel at such speeds, while perhaps leading to reductions on less safe roads.
• Give low priority to enforcement of any traffic laws intended to protect road users from themselves while having no impact on innocent victims.

A full explanation of these policies is available on their official website.

2016 FEDERAL ELECTION

• Motorbike Writer does not endorse any one party or candidate.
• We have contacted all the major and many of the minor parties asking them for their polices that affect the more than one million motorcycle riders in Australia.
• We have asked for policies that reference motorcycles, riders, road safety, road rules and road infrastructure.
• We have also asked whether any of their members or candidates are riders.
• If or when we receive responses, we will publish them for our readers’ information.