01.14
Given that we currently have a state government that’s completely paralysed and unable to act in a sufficient manner to anything, I find it no surprise that suggestions for legislation are coming from everywhere other than state cabinet. In recent days, the NSW Police Force has put forward ideas to tackle both the rising road toll and people’s inabilities to be responsible when consuming alcohol.
This raises an interesting point about the separation between those that make the law and those that enforce it. While I firmly believe that if the bodies that created and enforced laws were the same is something that would be frighteningly Orwellian as there is no accountability and that, I can assure you, is a bad thing.
However, as with most things, it’s not as black and white as you’d think.
I fully support their plan to introduce tougher penalties for people who engage in dangerous behaviour on our roads by forcing police to engage in high-speed pursuits. This is a brilliant idea. I firmly believe that those who have no understanding of a drivers license being a privilege, rather than a right, being constantly slapped on the wrists is pathetic. These people don’t deserve to be on the roads and the idea that the police are taking this matter into there own hands and providing a solution to one part of the problem is nothing short of admirable. This is the positive sort of action that I applaud. This targets those that are breaking the law and seeks to punish them accordingly.
That said, I do not – at all, under any circumstances – support their call to limit sales of alcohol on Australia Day. This is entirely wrong and a definite over-step of their boundaries. Unlike their other idea, this one does not punish those that have broken the law, it punishes everyone. That is not something that I can condone. While the problems with drunken behaviour (specifically amongst the younger generations) is something that needs to be addressed, the plans to counter it should not affect the rest of the population that’s capable of going out, having a few drinks and behaving in a responsible manner.
The police exist to stop those that break the law and protect those that do not. But while there needs to be a line between law creation and law enforcement, there is a case when the legislators do not act that there is cause for enforcement to step up, within reason.