2017-05-24
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — On 10 May the Andrews government voted down legislation that could have penalised motorists who drive too close to cyclists, threatening their safety. It would have reduced risk to some of our most vulnerable road users and led to fewer injuries and deaths of cyclists. Despite this Labor refused to support the bill.
Labor's failure to support cycling safety rightly angered many. Within two days over 300 people had written to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and Premier Andrews to express their disappointment. Then the roads minister took to social media to shine a light on road safety. Now, we can all agree that supporting the Shine a Light on Road Safety community campaign is important and extremely worthwhile. We can all agree that we need to make sure all Victorians feel safe on our roads and get home unscathed to their family. But the problem is that Labor had deliberately left one group of road users in the dark earlier that week — that is, cyclists.
Many social media users commented on the minister's post, expressing their outrage at the hypocrisy of Labor in not supporting the Metre Matters bill while saying they care about road safety. Then the minister made things worse for himself. Instead of recognising the justifiable complaints of this group of road users, including cyclists, in his post, I heard from many social media users that the minister had resorted to hiding and deleting posts, so I thought I would bring it to his attention via his social media channel. But then my post was deleted, and then the entire thread was deleted.
The minister's refusal to include cyclists when talking about road safety actually gets to the heart of why we need Metre Matters laws in the first place. The legislation would have sent a strong message to drivers that sharing the road safely with cyclists is a necessity, not an inconvenience.