Page 579 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 May 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR LAMONT (8.58): Madam Speaker, somewhat surprisingly - - -
Mr Kaine: This is going to be a long one.
MR LAMONT: It will be.
Mr Kaine: He even has a prepared speech, too. Look at this, a prepared speech.
MR LAMONT: I do believe that it is incumbent upon the Government to try to educate the Opposition. Somewhat surprisingly, Madam Speaker, the issue of compulsory bike helmets has become - - -
Mr Kaine: You are going to have a hard time educating us on anything.
MR LAMONT: I know that we are going to have a hard time trying to educate the Opposition. Somewhat surprisingly, Madam Speaker, the issue of compulsory bike helmets has become reasonably controversial. Members of this Assembly on both sides of the house have been assailed as threatening individual freedoms, and supporters of the Government's proposal have even had their commitment to democracy questioned.
Opponents of the Government's legislation have argued, inter alia, that because there are a greater number of head injuries to pedestrians and motorists, the Government is not justified in helmeting cyclists and that in doing so they are trampling on the individual rights of cyclists. Drawing heavily on the philosophical writings of the nineteenth century libertarian John Stuart Mill, they argue that the right to self-preservation is the right of the individual alone and that head injuries to cyclists are no-one else's concern. They deny that the law should be a mechanism for persuading children of the benefits of wearing helmets, saying that this is properly the responsibility of parents.
As an Assembly member, and as a father of three boys, I am extremely concerned that the outwardly sophisticated arguments of these critics could undermine community support for what I see as a very important measure by the Government to improve public safety.
Madam Speaker, the statistics used by the opponents of this proposal are quite misleading and, I would suggest, mischievous. Put simply, it does not necessarily follow that we should not legislate for the wearing of bike helmets before we have helmeted pedestrians and/or motorists. While it may be true that the absolute number of people incurring head injuries is greater for pedestrians and motorists, this says little about the true nature of the risks involved in cycling.
I doubt whether any medical statistics exist, or would be obtainable, to show the number of bike riders who regularly ride their bikes in public places. Therefore, we are unlikely ever to have any firm data on the number of head injuries as a percentage of bike riders and how this compares with the percentage for pedestrians and motorists.
While such information may be unobtainable, I suspect that the reason why there is such little community support for helmet wearing by pedestrians and motorists is that these activities are seen to be inherently less dangerous, in terms of
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .