Letter to the Editor
Listen up. I’m not writing this for the polite people in the newsrooms. I’m writing this for the blokes and sheilas in the backblocks, the ones who actually pay the bills while the suits in Canberra target your kids for sex changes.
We’re handing over nearly 50% of every hard-earned dollar to this government, and what do we get? Bugger all. We get a bunch of toothless tigers at the Office of Fair Trading & ACCC who wouldn’t know a defect notice if it bit them on the arse. We get government departments full of drongos who couldn’t change a bloody car tyre if their life depended on it, yet they’re sitting in air-conditioned offices telling us all about climate change.
The “Review Site” scam is a lie
Here’s the truth: You can’t trust a five-star review on a $70,000 rig if it’s written the day you picked it up. It’s a load of crap.
Dealers are handing out free awnings for caravans, motor covers for boats, fuel cards for 4x4s, and “handover bonuses” just to get you to click “5 Stars” before you’ve even left the car park. That’s not a review. That’s a bribe.
You think your rig is solid? You haven’t hit the corrugations of the Peninsula Development Road. You haven’t camped in the rain on the Cape. You haven’t tried to fix a leaking roof while the water is dripping on your face.
Here’s the kicker: If a 6-month review ban was in place for vehicles over $20k, it would be better for everyone. It gives the bloke selling the rig a fair go to fix the stuff-ups and improve quality. It gives the customer a chance to see if the thing actually holds together. It forces manufacturers & businesses to make good instead of running away.
But guess what? If that happened, the toothless tigers at the ACCC & Office of Fair Trading would be obsolete. Their jobs would vanish because they wouldn’t need to be there to “police” a system that actually works. They’re only there to protect the status quo, to keep the money flowing to the lobbyists.
The insurance “Middle Finger”
And don’t get me started on the insurance companies. You’ve paid premiums for years. You’ve been a good bloke. You’ve followed the rules.
Then something breaks. A roof leaks. A chassis snaps. A solar system dies in the middle of the bush.
You call them up. You say, “I need to claim.”
“Sorry mate, that’s wear and tear.” Or, “That’s a manufacturing defect, go to the dealer.” But the dealer says, “Warranty denied.”
So now you’re stuck. Stranded. Thousands of dollars down the drain. And the insurance company is giving you the middle finger.
The “Unroadworthy” Nightmare
We see it here in Cape York every week. Brand-new rigs on the back of tow trucks. Families who’ve sold their homes, borrowed the money, and are now told by frigging cops & mermaids that their van is unroadworthy.
And the government? They’re too busy with their own agenda to care. They’d rather change your kids sex than change a policy that would actually help the average Aussie.
The Fix? Simple.
1. Stop the Fake Reviews: Impose a 6-month waiting period for any review on a vehicle over $20k. No exceptions. If you haven’t lived with it, you can’t review it.
2. Stop the Bribes: If a dealer is caught paying for reviews, ban them. No more “review for a free awning.”
3. Insurance Reform: Insurance companies need to stop hiding behind fine print. If you’ve paid premiums for years, you deserve to be covered when things go wrong.
4. Scrap the Lobbyists: We need to stop the drongos who hang out in the dunnys in Parliament House, licking their lips and dusting off their knee caps, while they sell us out. They’re the ones pulling the strings, keeping the Fair Trading office & ACCC clowns in a job.
Why This Matters
Aussies love the bush. We love to travel. We love to explore. But we can’t afford to be ripped off. We can’t afford to be told to “f*** off” by insurance companies when we’ve paid for years. We can’t afford to be lied to by review sites on the internet, maybe that other clown “Inman Grant” the eSafety Commissioner who’s fixated on your kids, could she help us adults too? FAT CHANCE
It’s time to stop the BS. It’s time to shrink the government. It’s time to get fair dinkum.
Jason Clark
Cape York Peninsula
