Issue #339 – Wednesday, 13 July, 2016
Albury Wodonga’s largest circulating newspaper
They raised their voices Education was the topic of discussion at last week’s annual three-day Victorian Student Congress in Melbourne, where two Wodonga TAFE students offered their voices as regional representatives.
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Stop the roll toll QUAD bike accidents are currently a leading cause of death on Australian properties, with about 220 deaths having occurred in the last 16 years. Last year Safe Work Australia reported 21 quad bike related fatalities across the country. Within the first half of 2016 there have already been seven deaths - three of those occurred in May alone. Recognising it as a “serious” issue for farmers, the NSW Government included in its budget a $2 million quad bike safety package and safety improvement program that is to commence later this month. It aims to encourage and support farmers to adopt harm prevention strategies to protect their workers, family and themselves. Worksafe Victoria recently deemed crush-protection devices an important asset of reducing risks to farm workers after it received enough collective evidence from “coronial inquiries, hospital injury data and academic research” and revised its approach to quad bike use. A rebate to improve quad bike safety in Victoria is still yet to be delivered. That’s why the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has called on the Victorian Government to fund a rebate for its farmers. The group has urged the government to adopt a three-year program that will deliver a full rebate on quad bike crush protection devices, a rebate towards side-by-side vehicles, and a rebate on training. “There is pressure for the State Government to mandate crush protection devices, be-
cause the feeling is that this will reduce the level of risk for people, especially farmers, using quad bikes,” Mr Touhey said. “It’s a huge safety issue and with NSW leading the way we hope they’ll take notice of that.” Mr Touhey said measures desperately needed to be put in place to protect farmers who use quad bikes on their properties. “It will help save people lives particularly when farmers are only about three percent of the workforce but make up 30 per cent of workplace deaths,” he said. “It’s a massive number and it really does need a bit of support.” With such narrow wheelbases, Mr Touhey said the quad bikes are risky because they can be quite difficult to handle in certain circumstances. “There are a lot of farmers who don’t really have the ability to handle it in rough and unstable conditions and you need to be reasonably strong to drive a quad in all conditions. “Same applies to people under 16 who just don’t have the weight and experience to drive these vehicles because different types of loads can make the vehicle easily unstable.” Quad bike training would enable farmers to “better understand” how to drive the vehicles because while farmers may be experienced, there are always some tips and advice that could save a life, Mr Touhey said. “Fatalities caused by quad bikes are a huge issue on Victorian farms,” he said. “We are confident that soon we’ll have a solution to this dangerous problem,” he said.
Blood in the streets DRENCHED in fake blood and wearing nothing but knickers in the street of Pamplona, Spain, was 22-year-old Albury girl Hannah Bailey standing among other activists protesting against the “brutal“ running of the bulls at the annual San Fermin Festival. FULL DETAILS, PAGE 3.
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By MONIQUE KUZEFF