Why is Reba Meagher and her campaign manager Nick Lalich only promoting health and fitness in our area, when we need MANY other areas corrected much more urgently, like safety on our roads. 

The Liberal Party Candidate for the NSW State seat of Cabramatta, Victor Smith today stated that he and the NSW Liberal/Nationals support NSW Premier Morris Iemma’s P-Plate driver measures in principle, but are making it VERY clear that at least 300 new highway patrol officers are needed urgently.

We are all aware of the tragic amount of P-Plate drivers being injured or killed, damaging property and constantly breaking the rules and regulations.  As the population swells and grows and P-Plate drivers are required to maintain their P-Plates much longer, there will be an increasing number of these young, inexperienced drivers on our roads.  These are young drivers who laugh at the current lack of police powers and presence on our roads and scoff at our current rules and regulations.

We are happy to support the P-Plate measures, but new rules and regulations are useless unless you have additional officers on the roads immediately to enforce these changes.  ALL major road safety experts have agreed that a MUCH larger police presence is needed to deter rule breakers, and now.

We are currently very sadly lacking police numbers and the NSW Labor Party want to enforce new rules.  Unless police numbers are boosted immediately, these changes will mean very little, if anything to our current inadequate P-Plate system.  We need a huge increase in police patrols – police back on patrol where they can deter offenders and enforce our rules and regulations.

Victor Smith says that Labor must immediately adopt Peter Debnam’s new policy for an additional 300 highway patrol officers.

The $130 million package includes:

• 300 extra highway patrol police officers;
• 120 additional highway patrol motor vehicles;
• 50 highway patrol motorcycles;
• Consolidate Highway Patrol, traffic police and Accident Investigation Squad into their own State Command; and,
• Examine feasibility of using qualified highway patrol officers to assist PCYCs and schools in driver safety and awareness.  Many other countries have made it a compulsory subject to undertake driver training at high school.  This may be an answer that we seek to help reduce the losses we sustain to young life and property.

If elected in the March elections, I will be helping to put an end to highway patrol officers being taken off the road to carry out general duties work because of under-staffing at our local stations.

Ms Meagher would have us believe that Cabramatta Police Station has had an increase of 12 new officers, since April 2004.  The fact is, 12 new officers HAVE arrived, but over 30 have retired, resigned or moved elsewhere.  This is a NEGATIVE manpower effect.  This is a great loss to policing numbers in our community - a community in urgent need of additional police, not a loss in police.  It is TOO LATE Ms Meagher to boost the numbers at Cabramatta now, when an election is around the corner.

Victor Smith has personally lost a brother to carnage on our roads.  Do you want to see one of your friends or family, become a victim?  Act now! Victor Smith and Peter Debnam want to resolve the carnage on our roads and the inadequate police numbers and can only do this after the March elections.

If any readers have any issue relating to P-Plates drivers our police issues, please contact Victor Smith, Liberal Party member for Cabramatta on 0405937528 immediately.