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Voluntary Euthanasia / Assisted Dying

  I have read numerous articles and comments regarding the introduction of the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill into SA Parliament recently. This discussion is very close to my heart as back in 1983 my Father passed away from the then little known disease Motor Neuron Disease.  Put simply MND is one of the most cruel diseases that us humans can suffer from.  The key word here is suffer. My Father was only 40 when he passed away.  He was a strong and vibrant man who loved teaching, classical music, photography and trains.  This bastard of a disease reduced him to nothing.  We all watched helplessly over a period of 18 months waste away. At first the symptoms made him look and sound as if he were drunk, but quickly the disease took hold and he lost the ability to speak and look after himself.  After nearly 12 months from diagnosis he was reduced to being totally bedridden, fed liquid food only, unable to communicate, loss of bodily functions.  Then there i...
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Access to Public Transport

  It does not matter where you reside within South Australia, everyone is entitled to be able to access decent public transport services.  I am not advocating for 10 minute services for everyone as we have to obviously deal with reality. Our wonderful state is littered with disused railway lines which were abandoned by the Government of the day decades ago as an easy cost saving measure.  A series of decisions that lacked a vision for the future of public transportation.  These decisions were made for the present not the future and sadly, this ideology is still the norm. An example very poor planning for future transport requirements was in the late 1960's when the decision was made to cease passenger rail services on the Hallett Cove-Willunga railway.  This line serviced Reynella, Morphett Vale, Hackham, Old Noarlunga, Seaford & McLaren Vale all of which have been expanding exponentially for the past 45 years.   The old line to Willunga was r...
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Tough penalties for poor driving

 I have spent my entire working career on the road, much of it driving heavy vehicles and I have noticed a steady decline in driver behaviour over the past 36 years. This poor behaviour on our roads coincides with a general deterioration in our societies values which began in the mid 80's.  Discipline in schools was wound back and eventually removed, parents were encouraged to tone down discipline at home and in public for fear of being charged with assault or child abuse. The social structures that were built over generations in this country where (in the main) people respected one another, themselves and authority was washed away in a matter of years.  The result now is two or three generations of people who struggle to socialise with others, have no respect for authority and no respect for themselves.  These people have grown up not being disciplined for doing things wrong.  They have also been allowed to keep succeeding when clearly they failed because socie...
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