2009-03-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not?! It is against the law in Queensland [Australia] to eat and drink while smoking, see:

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/atods/tobaccolaws/eating/default.asp.

In Australia it is legal to cull kangaroos for eating grass but it is illegal to cull saltwater crocodiles for eating people!

TAKING THE ‘NANNY’ OUT OF GOVERNMENT!

There are many examples of such legislation or processes in Australia. Of note is the appalling tobacco legislation in Queensland. These laws claim to have been drafted in response to popular demand. How can that be so when it is almost impossible to find anyone who knows and understands the legislation? However, it might be assumed that smokers and non-smokers would wish to prevent injury to one another with some sensible regulation of allegedly harmful events such as ‘passive smoking’. ‘Sensible’ should have been the key. However, this was not to be the case. Queensland produced a piece of legislation that made it illegal to consume foodstuffs while partaking of tobacco in a designated smoking area. The citizen may drink [but not eat anything] while doing so, but only in the designated area. Not only that, it also made it illegal for any business other than a licensed hotel, restaurant or café, to actually have a designated smoking area. In one movement, this legislature presumed to have the authority to instruct its citizens as to when they might eat and also discriminated against those businesses not licensed to serve alcohol. Many cafes and coffee-shops are unlicensed. As a result, there are very few places where the average citizen might ‘have a beer [or coffee], a meat pie and a quiet smoke while sitting peacefully in an outdoor place, in the open-air, [a coffee-shop, for example], well away from non-smokers. Furthermore, the licensed venues [mainly the cafes] have decided in the main not to create designated smoking areas as these reduce the number of tables they have at which citizens may have a meal, thus reducing their take. Well done! Some might say! Just try to explain it to overseas tourists and interstate visitors! And what next? The latest claim is that more than two drinks of alcohol per day will kill us. Tobacco smoke will kill us! So will carbon monoxide and other carcinogens found in vehicle exhausts, home fireplaces and bushfire smoke! To take this further and apply the law uniformly, drivers who pass by an outdoor coffee shop or cafe should be fined for spilling far more nasties onto the patrons and anyone else in the vicinity!

Nowhere else in the whole world [even in Tasmania and Ireland] is it against the law to partake of tobacco in an outdoor coffee-shop or café, licensed or unlicensed. Nowhere else does the government purport to be able to tell people when they can eat! Queensland is completely out-of-step with personal and civil rights available elsewhere. For a convenient illustration, travel to Tweed Heads on the border of Queensland and NSW and view the differences in freedoms across the street. It is indeed unusual that Queenslanders generally have accepted this intrusion into personal matters.

Other examples of incursions into personal rights include the current nation-wide obesity campaign, the additional tax imposed on ‘cooler’ alcoholic drinks, the Gold Coast's two-hour parking rules and there are many more examples.

All of this is similar nonsense to the minority belief, reflected in reactive legislation, that crocodiles and sharks are more important than people! So, it is OK to cull kangaroos but not crocodiles?! D we really need crocodiles in inhabited areas? Is there not plenty of room for them elsewhere?!

Of deep concern is how governments react to the claims of the self-interest groups and bureaucrats who put forward such ideas. Queensland seems to be the most over-reactive of all! Does Queensland really need to go to such extremes? Is it a competition to see who can be the most petty? Where were the elected representatives when the tobacco laws were hurried through the Queensland parliament, no doubt at 4 am on a Monday morning! Who on earth wrote these laws? Was it a hand-picked group of anti-smoking fanatics? They certainly were not drafted by and for the average citizen! Is there not one parliamentarian in Queensland who will stand up for personal freedoms in the face of blind political correctness and amend this legislation?! Where were “you” when it was written?! What are you going to do when the extremists come up with the idea that no-one should smoke anywhere, anytime!?

We are seemingly obsessed with a fear of litigation, not only for legitimate concerns, but especially for some other obscure and often unforseen circumstance. Perhaps this is the reason governments try to spell out the rules, in minute detail, for every possible scenario that might result in litigation. Unfortunately for its residents, Queensland takes this to the penultimate degree?

One thing is certain. Most people seem to resent the growing floods of one-eyed legislation emanating from the noisy minority lobby groups through our bureaucracies into government legislation. There is a growing anger over government interference in our personal lives.

One might only hope that when we become a republic there will be an opportunity for the people to "wake-up" to rule by self-interests in favour of rule by the people and for the people. It could make for a good election issue in the coming years and we hope it does!

Some Liberty, Equality and Fraternity would be nice!! We are sure many would vote for it!!

The Organiser,

Australians’ Rights Movement

AUSTRALIANS' RIGHTS MOVEMENT