ARARAT
Carols
by Candlelight Vol. 19 No. 23
FREE PUBLICATION
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Story, page 3
GIFTS GALORE: Mikayla Bohner, Jeremy Price, Tim Cronin and Will Vernon get into the Christmas spirit at Ararat’s Chalambar Golf Club in honour of the publication of The Weekly Advertiser’s 20-page The BIG Christmas Catalogue. The catalogue, inside today’s bumper edition, features a wide array of Christmas bargains available from businesses across the Wimmera, Grampians and Mallee. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Farmers angry
W
BY DEAN LAWSON
idespread farmer anxiety over a road-safety blitz involving harvest grain trucks has prompted police to guarantee an expanded community engagement program on the issue next year.
But Wimmera Superintendent Paul Margetts said police made no apologies for enforcing road rules based on road and workplace safety. He said the general message to all road users was they had a responsibility to be accountable for maintaining the roadworthiness of their vehicles.
“Road-users have to make sure everything is in order and at the moment that includes a fleet of harvest vehicles. If enforcing that prevents a family from having a tragedy at Christmas then I’m happy with that,” he said. “The farming community must be highly aware that they are working in a heavy-vehicle area that is highly regulated. Professional truck drivers are exposed to this type scrutiny daily.” A Victoria Police Heavy Vehicle Unit from Melbourne, previously targeting the forestry industry, has
IN THIS ISSUE
switched its attention to the hay and harvest season and been busy checking grain trucks in the Wimmera. The move has triggered an angry response from many farmers who have claimed on social media and in calls to the Victorian Farmers Federation that enforcement had gone beyond safety, been pedantic and resulted in costly and pointless harvest delays. VFF president David Jochinke said he had fielded at least 35 to 40 phone calls within a couple of days from frustrated farmers who believed enforcement had been overzealous.
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and travelling all sorts of distances to dealers to then find out there’s nothing actually wrong. “With call after call the claims are that a process has gone down to the lowest level of detail to catch someone out.” Mr Jochinke said the VFF strongly supported police and a general demand for farm-vehicle safety but urged authorities to consider greater community consultation when planning enforcement blitzes. Continued page 3
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He said he had never had to respond to such a high level of angry phone traffic from the farming community. “We’re usually a very placid and conservative bunch but, when you consider these communities have gone through two years of drought, the response I’ve been getting has been intense,” he said. “I have no time for anyone caught without good brakes, tyres or steering – they are serious safety issues – but I’ve had reports of farmers being ordered to address mystery issues on their trucks, stopping harvest
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