Adelaide protest run

[MadKaw]

ADELAIDE PROTEST RUN SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2006.

Raising the cost for rider training is ominous. Raising the cost of South Australia's compulsory rider training by 340% is assault. In 2004 the national Australian Financial Review ran a quarter page article with the headline "TAX MOTORCYCLES OFF OUR ROADS". A sign of the times. A sign of the antibike culture in too many of our road authorities.

Victoria's motorbike & scooter riders were hit with the discriminatory $54 per bike, per year hidden tax. (PROTEST MELB. OCT. 3) Tassie riders were attacked with a licence tax. It was narrowly defeated through excellent work by the Tasmanian Motorcycle Council. Increasing the cost of riding to "reduce exposure" has been discussed by road authorities around Australia. Now it's the South Australians turn - a 340% increase in the cost of rider training!

It is counterproductive, irresponsible, for any road authority that genuinely wants motorbike & scooter safety to make it harder for would-be riders to get training. With motoring costs, traffic congestion and environmental concerns there's a steady growth in the number of motorbike & scooter riders on our roads. These people won't go away. The South Australian Government's rider training cost increase will simply put more untrained, unlicenced riders out there and the cost to society will make the cash they pocket from training look paltry. False economy.

The South Australian Motorcycle Riders' Association will ride on Parliament House in Adelaide to protest on Saturday, August 5, 2006. I'm riding over there to support them because taxing motorbikes & scooters off our roads is a national problem. I urge all Victorian riders to try to be there too. Go to http://www.mrasa.asn.au for more info or use one of the email addresses below.

Please pass this message on.

Damien Codognotto OAM
MRA Life Member.
Ulysses Club 21208.
Melbourne.

[I-K]

Raising the cost for rider training is ominous. Raising the cost of South Australia's compulsory rider training by 340% is assault. In 2004 the national Australian Financial Review ran a quarter page article with the headline "TAX MOTORCYCLES OFF OUR ROADS". A sign of the times. A sign of the antibike culture in too many of our road authorities.

<snip-more hysterical bullshit>

Damian Codognotto

Personally, I find that being addressed in this sort of alarmist, manipulative tone makes me feel I'm being taken for a fucking idiot who can be panicked into a desired response.

Codognotto is a self-aggrandising nutcase whose ravings serve only to hobble legitimate, measured attempts at lobbying for motorcycle issues. He's a lying twerp who hijacks other organisations' initiatives, buries them under hysteria and pretends they're his own. Think this protest in South Australia's his idea?

Motorcycle lobbying is only just recovering from the damage he did in the late 80's, and still the irrelevant cockpank refuses to fuck off and have his psychosis in private.

[Smitty]

Personally, I find that being addressed in this sort of alarmist, manipulative tone makes me feel I'm being taken for a fucking idiot who can be panicked into a desired response.

Codognotto is a self-aggrandising nutcase whose ravings serve only to hobble legitimate, measured attempts at lobbying for motorcycle issues. He's a lying twerp who hijacks other organisations' initiatives, buries them under hysteria and pretends they're his own. Think this protest in South Australia's his idea?

Motorcycle lobbying is only just recovering from the damage he did in the late 80's, and still the irrelevant cockpank refuses to fuck off and have his psychosis in private.

aaah yes... I-K
but what are other SA riders doing??
do they like being shafted???
btw
Damien may be a nutter, a cog loose in the gearbox
but sometimes...sometimes he gets its right

[aardvark]

but what are other SA riders doing??

Probably nothing, because we've already paid for our licences!

[Plaz]

I'll be at the protest, condeseding or alarmist as it may be most people are smart enough to read the real message, that in the end we are being targeted and discrimated against. The fee to learn to drive haven't taken a 340% hike!!!

[stevew_zzr]

Yup i'd be protesting except i don't have a functioning motorcycle ... d'oh!

[Shaman]

I was speaking to someone about this on the weekend.

The government gets something like 40c/L on petrol prices and isn't it rather coincidental that when petrol prices go up, the fees to gain a licence for a much cheaper (fuel-wise) machine also get raised?

I honestly believe the government are just in this so they can have their cake and eat it too. It's wayyyy too much of a coincidence that petrol hits a record high, more motorists are converting to two-wheeled transport than ever before in Australia and then all of a sudden the licencing fees are strung up by 340%. The government are well aware that scooters and bikes only use a percentage of the fuel that cars do and they're aware that their already massive 40c/L on each sump is going to start dwindling when considerably less fuel is being pumped into the bikes / scooters. I think they've gone through a political discussion to find the best balance in fees and with the current conversion rate of 4-wheelers to 2-wheelers, a 340% increase in licencing fees is enough to make up for their loss of petrol income.

You've got enough money, Johnny boy - we shouldn't be penalised for something that is going to help our lifestyle as a whole - more riders means more rider awareness on the road and this cannot be a bad thing...!

[Kishy]

I dont see how anyone can have issues with the communication
issued.

At the end of the day what they do/organise/advise is in the best
interests of motorcycling community... & unless youre a paying
member, you are reaping any benefits free of charge..

[I-K]

I dont see how anyone can have issues with the communication issued.

Seeing how you keep cut-pasting articles from the Herald-Sun, that doesn't really come as a surprise.

For the benefit of you and any other hard-of-thinking people who might be out there, I will now illustrate what the problems with Codognotto's communique are.

Raising the cost for rider training is ominous. Raising the cost of South Australia's compulsory rider training by 340% is assault.

Here, Uncle Damien is using the same panic tactic the governments he detests so much relies on when it wants to angry up the blood; he talks in percentages, not quantities (and then he goes on to lie about them, too).

Now, the cost of a prelearner course in SA is slated to go up from $90 to $290 (a 220% increase) and the cost of the optional advanced course which follows it is due to go up from $79 to $255 (a 223% increase).

In 2004 the national Australian Financial Review ran a quarter page article with the headline "TAX MOTORCYCLES OFF OUR ROADS". A sign of the times. A sign of the antibike culture in too many of our road authorities.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, can we agree that 2004 was two years ago? Good.

So, to back up his contention that governments are out to get us, Damien has to produce an opinion piece which appeared in a niche newspaper two years ago (hands up everyone in here who routinely reads the Fin?). Leaving alone the fact that he can't come up with anything more recent, he neglects to mention that the piece was by a random economist, not a government or motor registry official, and that the same newspaper published detractions of the piece in its next issue.

With motoring costs, traffic congestion and environmental concerns there's a steady growth in the number of motorbike & scooter riders on our roads.

Every piece of propaganda deserving of the name contains at least one statement of the obvious...

These people won't go away.

...followed by a rallying cry...

The South Australian Government's rider training cost increase will simply put more untrained, unlicenced riders out there...

...then a bald-faced misrepresentation. The implication is that people who are contemplating switching to bikes because of traffic congestion and petrol prices will take up riding unlicensed because they can't afford the one-off $300-ish cost of the preleaner course.

Show of hands who considers this realistic?

...the cost to society will make the cash they pocket from training look paltry.

Here, he conveniently neglects to mention that rider training is actually subsidised. What n00bs pay to the motor registration authority is less than what the authority pays the training providers; prelearner training is a net cost to state governments.

The South Australian Motorcycle Riders' Association will ride on Parliament House in Adelaide to protest on Saturday, August 5, 2006. I'm riding over there to support them...

And thus, the punchline. This is an MRASA gig. Damien has nothing to do with it beyond having heard about it and tried to put himself at the centre of it. This has been his coping strategy ever since the Victorian MRA gave him the arse for running that organisation into the ground with his cronyism.

The man is a parasite.

At the end of the day what they do/organise/advise is in the best interests of motorcycling community...

So, it's in our interests to have certifiable lunatics running around, lying their arses off at the top of their lungs, claiming that they are the voice of Australian motorcyclists?

[SenNey]

I would pass comment, but it would be a conflict of interest.

[Kishy]

Pass comment nevertheless!

You're more qualified than most to make comment

[SenNey]

Pass comment nevertheless!

You're more qualified than most to make comment

At the end of the day what they do/organise/advise is in the best
interests of motorcycling community... & unless youre a paying
member, you are reaping any benefits free of charge..

I agree with this

As for the other topic in this thread

[Kishy]

SenNey

I.K; Kiss my black ass you grumpy old fuck

[I-K]

SenNey

I.K; Kiss my black ass you grumpy old fuck

The way you kiss the arse of anyone who (you think) agrees with you?

I rephrase my question to you from my last post...

...is it right for motorcycling issues to be hijacked by megalomaniacal individuals who would use lies, misinterpretations and antagonism to get their point across?

What's your answer?

[greenmeanie]

SenNey

I.K; Kiss my black ass you grumpy old fuck

Unlike the colouring in pen tyre man i find I-K's repsonses informative esp on tech questions(def a members opinion i value).

P.S - When i read the title i thought it was about jase giving neka a ticket!

(j/k guys).