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  • L-Plater driver courses to slash 20 hours of practice under NSW cabinet approved plan

    Driving tests must be much more stringent and include a phychological assessment before issuing drivers licences. We are seeing incidents with P/Platers where other responsible drivers and their passengers are being killed or maimed. Perhaps the licensing age is too young

    L-plater driving courses to slash 20 hours of practise under NSW cabinet approved plan

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    L-plate

    Major change for L-plate drivers to be announced. Picture: Dave Highet Source: The Daily Telegraph

    LEARNER drivers can practise for 20 hours less – if they take a safe driving course, the government will announce today.

    State cabinet has approved a policy that allows L-platers under 25 to cut their practice hours from 120 to 100 if they finish the optional course successfully.

    The course is being developed by a board of road safety and education experts, chaired by VicRoads former director of road safety Eric Howard.

    Are you on your Ls? Are you the parent of someone on their Ls? What do you think of the changes? Drop us a line at news@dailytelegraph.com.au

    It is expected to be made up of five hours of combined on-road training and classroom education and will focus on safe driving practices as well as driver attitudes.

    Recommended Coverage

    L-plate

    Hot Topic: L-plater hours

    WHAT is more important: The costs to parents or ensuring your teenager learns to be a responsible driver? If the Government really wants to help families on lower incomes, offer them financial assistance. There are too many young lives being lost on our roads already.
    L plate

    Survival training plan for L-platers

    COALITION wants learners to complete a skilled driving course before P-plates.
    bryce wells

    Keep L-plate hours at 120, begs dad

    THE father of one of four teens, whose car crash death led to new laws forcing L-platers to drive 120 hours before sitting for their licence, has opposed a move to wind back the scheme.

    The proposal was mooted before the state government came to power and yesterday Roads Minister Duncan Gay said he was pleased the government was on its way to developing the course.

    “Sadly young people are over represented in fatalities related to speeding and poor decision making while driving,” he said.

    “This will give young and inexperienced drivers the opportunity to have hands-on practice with experienced instructors.”

    The policy approved by cabinet said the course’s design would be based on recent road safety research, and would be available across NSW.

    L-platers under 25 currently have to log 120 hours of driving before they can qualify for their red P-1 licence.

    The Auditor-General has found the number of fatal crashes involving young drivers has gone down since learner drivers were made to graduate from their L, P-1 and P-2 licences before getting a full licence. The auditor-general also found high-risk behaviour in young drivers contributed to their over-representation in fatal crashes.

    The government estimates that 95,000 learner drivers would be eligible for the safe drivers course each year.

    Learner drivers are currently able to reduce their log-book hours by completing structured classes with an instructor.

    A one-hour lesson with a certified instructor is the equivalent of three hours practice with parents, family members or other holders of a full licence.

    But under the scheme, announced by the previous government in December 2009, L-platers can only use this method of fast-tracking their experience for up to 10 lessons.

    The latest policy was approved by cabinet after research showed some risks taken by young drivers were about bad choices, not driving skill.

    That is why the government has said the safe driving course would also be about changing attitudes as well as enhancing on-road skills.

    About 43 per cent of drivers under 26 are found to have been speeding when involved in fatal crashes, compared with 23 per cent of drivers aged over 26.

    Mr Gay said the board of safety experts would report back on its findings by August.

     

  • Tourist influx a danger to fragile outback: scientist

    Tourist influx a danger to fragile outback: scientist

    By Tim Jeanes

    Updated March 19, 2012 09:02:57

    Tourists leave their mark on the outback, warns an ecologist Photo: Tourists leave their mark on the outback, warns an ecologist (ABC News: Lew Chinner)
    Related Story: Floodwaters filling remote Lake Eyre again
    Related Story: Outback national park reopens
    Related Story: Residents plead for summer road closure
    Map: SA

    An ecologist is warning of potential environmental risks from an expected influx of tourists to the Lake Eyre region of outback South Australia.

    The visitors are expected to be drawn by another flooding of the often-parched region.

    Director the of the Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre, Professor Richard Kingsford, says the area is vast but vulnerable from the effects of tourism.

    “People love to get out there and make a campfire beside the billabong, but every time someone comes they chop down a little bit of wood or pick up firewood that’s habitat for animals and some of the other microscopic animals that are in the system and rely on those areas,” he said.

    “We do tend to push the environment hard when we go to these spectacular places.”

    He said the remote outback would face other potential risks such as a spread of feral species.

    “Things like cane toads are on their way down through the northern part of the basin and pigs, and a range of plants that are really problematic,” he said.

    There was torrential rain across the outback more than two weeks ago.

    Topics:environmental-impact, environment, tourism, travel-and-tourism, lifestyle-and-leisure, rural-tourism, rural, floods, sa, port-augusta-5700, marree-5733, port-lincoln-5606, port-pirie-5540, renmark-5341

    First posted March 19, 2012 08:52:24

  • Antony Green’s Queensland Election Blog

    Will Jeff Seeney be the Next Premier of Queensland?

    This blog post is prompted by a Courier-Mail article last week by Madonna King that began “Jeff Seeney is likely to become Queensland Premier – at least in the short term.”

    In one of those great journalistic stand bys, the article stated that “Mr Seeney did not rule out taking on the role of interim Premier until a winner is declared in Ashgrove”.

    I don’t think this is likely at all. The idea that Jeff Seeney must become Premier if the result in Ashgrove is unclear ignores that it is normal constitutional practice for a period to elapse between polling day and the swearing in of a new government.

    Indeed the last two changes of government occurred around two weeks after the election, 13 days in the case of Peter Beattie in 1998 and 16 days for Rob Borbidge after the Mundingburra by-election in 1996. Even Wayne Goss had a delay of five days after winning a clear victory at the 1989 election.

    The table below sets out in detail the number of days between elections and the swearing in of new governments for most changes of government in Australia since 1970. The average delay between an election and the swearing in of the new ministry is 9 days. That means it is perfectly normal for the defeated government to carry on in caretaker mode for more than a week after its defeat.

    Continue reading “Will Jeff Seeney be the Next Premier of Queensland?” »

    Posted by on March 17, 2012 at 04:01 PM in Queensland Elections and Politics | |Comments (2)

    March 16, 2012

    ABC Queensland Election Calculator now LIVE!

    It is long delayed, but the ABC’s re-developed election calculator is now live at http://www.abc.net.au/elections/qld/2012/calculator/.

    What started as a simple design to allow more appropriate dealing with Independent held seats was greatly complicated by changing technology.

    The current calculator was designed in 2007. Since then the ABC has implemented a new content management system, has broadened the area of screen taken up by content, and has also had to adjust code to deal with new platforms such as tablet computers. The various widgets that had been used to run the calculator also needed updating, and we also wanted the capacity to be able to embed the calculator into news stories.

    So, after a much longer development than intended, welcome to the new calculator.

    On the Queensland version you can :

    • Move the sliders left for a swing to Labor or right for a swing to LNP. We’ve ended up duplicating the +/- 20% swing from the NSW election, though I would be surprised if the actual swing was in double figures.
    • You can use the drop-down menu at the top of the screen to select a recent published opinion poll.
    • Click the ‘Set swings at regional level’ box to apply different swing in the South-East compared to the rest of the state.
    • Click the ‘Factor retiring MPs’ to turn off the factor for retiring MPs. This factor also adds so-called ‘sophomore surge’ to some of the LNP members newly elected in 2009.
    • Click ‘Select individual seats’ to choose which party you think will win the electorates of Beaudesert, Burnett, Dalrymple, Gladstone, Maryborough, Mount Isa, Nanango and Nicklin. As you select each winning candidate, the total of seats changes.

    We might add Ashgrove to the list of selectable seats next week once we work out a few remaining gremlins in the mechanism.

    As in the past, the bottom of the display shows the seats re-arranged by newly calculated margins. Note that in the seats where you choose the winning party, the seat has no new margin and gets sorted to the bottom of the party list.

    If you have any comments and suggestions on how the calculator works, I’m happy to receive them over the weekend. Bugs we iron out with this version will give us a better calculator for the next Federal election where individual seat selection will again be important.

    Posted by on March 16, 2012 at 05:19 PM in Queensland Elections and Politics | |Comments (4)

  • Is there enough time to prevent widespread thawing of permafrost?

    Is there enough time to prevent widespread thawing of permafrost?

    This Q&A is part of the Guardian’s ultimate climate change FAQ

    • See all questions and answers
    • Read about the project

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  • Premier Barry O’Farrell to announce solar hardship scheme

    Premier Barry O’Farrell to announce solar hardship scheme

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    barry

    Speculation .. it is expected NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell will back away from his decision to axe the solar scheme subsidy today. Picture: Tim Hunter Source: The Daily Telegraph

    HARDSHIP provisions will be introduced to help those worst affected by the NSW government’s decision to slash the solar bonus scheme, Premier Barry O’Farrell has announced.

    Mr O’Farrell says his government will provide financial assistance to some of the tens of thousands of consumers who have installed solar panels under the scheme.

    The government announced earlier this month that the feed-in tariff for electricity supplied by domestic solar installations to the state grid will be cut from 60 cents to 40 cents per kilowatt hour.

    Details of the hardship previsions had yet to be worked out, Mr O’Farrell told reporters on Tuesday.

    Energy Minister Chris Hartcher will now consult groups representing pensioners, welfare recipients, farmers and self-funded retirees to put the package together.

    However, the tariff cut will stay in place, with the government hoping to introduce retrospective legislation by the end of June.

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    “We want those who invested in the scheme to get a fair return while protecting families across NSW from higher electricity prices,” Mr O’Farrell said.

    “There is no reason they should suffer financial hardship as a result of Labor’s incompetence and mismanagement in putting this scheme together.”

    Mr O’Farrell has been under pressure from solar panel owners, the industry and his own MPs over the retrospective legislation, which was designed to reign in a cost blowout in the former government’s solar scheme.

    The changes would save $471 million, which he says would help make up part of a $759 million funding shortfall.

    The changes would also protect average energy consumers from a $170 increase in their power bill over the life of the scheme, which winds up in 2016, Mr O’Farrell has said.

    But scheme applicants, many of whom live in coalition-held electorates, have said they would struggle to pay for their investment under the reduced tariff.

    The announcement of hardship provisions came less than an hour before a coalition joint party room meeting, where angry MPs were expected to vent their anger at the legislation.

    Mr O’Farrell said the hardship measures would address concerns of his coalition colleagues, and of the crossbenchers needed to get the solar changes through the NSW upper house.

    “This addresses the issues that members have raised with me about the hardship provisions. That’s where the concern has mostly been expressed to me, whether by crossbenchers … or members of my own team,” Mr O’Farrell said.

    “This is a package that delivers fairness. Fairness to those in the scheme, and fairness for other electricity users across the state.

    “This is about ensuring the government is fair, it’s about ensuring the government reigns in the costs, it’s about ensuring the government doesn’t push those costs onto other families.”

    Thousands of complaints have been received by MPs and the Shooters Party have vowed to block the change in the upper house ahead of an anticipated fiery party room meeting on the issue which was due to occur this morning.

    46 comments on this story