❓ Mr. Quigley asks about the veracity of media reports regarding the government potentially scrapping mandatory bicycle helmets. Ms. MacTiernan denies any such plans, criticising The West Australian's reporting as unbalanced and selective.
AnsweredQoN 78Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
BICYCLE HELMETS
Is what I have read in the media about the government looking at scrapping bike helmets true? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
Is what I have read in the media about the government looking at scrapping bike helmets true? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
AnswerView source ↗
I guess it is a case of whether it is true or whether we read it in The West Australian . I am a bit of a risk-taker, Mr Speaker. A young journalist called Jennifer from The West Australian with whom I had not previously had contact rang me. I said to her that I would not put her on written answers only - unfortunately, many journalists at The West Australian do not have the capacity to give a balanced position; we never expect The West Australian to be pro the government, but we want a balance - but that I would talk directly to her. Unfortunately, of course, only one part of what I said was reported and, indeed, the whole flavour of the article was opposite to what I had said. The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I guess it is a case of whether it is true or whether we read it in The West Australian . I am a bit of a risk-taker, Mr Speaker. A young journalist called Jennifer from The West Australian with whom I had not previously had contact rang me. I said to her that I would not put her on written answers only - unfortunately, many journalists at The West Australian do not have the capacity to give a balanced position; we never expect The West Australian to be pro the government, but we want a balance - but that I would talk directly to her. Unfortunately, of course, only one part of what I said was reported and, indeed, the whole flavour of the article was opposite to what I had said. The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
I guess it is a case of whether it is true or whether we read it in The West Australian . I am a bit of a risk-taker, Mr Speaker. A young journalist called Jennifer from The West Australian with whom I had not previously had contact rang me. I said to her that I would not put her on written answers only - unfortunately, many journalists at The West Australian do not have the capacity to give a balanced position; we never expect The West Australian to be pro the government, but we want a balance - but that I would talk directly to her. Unfortunately, of course, only one part of what I said was reported and, indeed, the whole flavour of the article was opposite to what I had said. The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I guess it is a case of whether it is true or whether we read it in The West Australian . I am a bit of a risk-taker, Mr Speaker. A young journalist called Jennifer from The West Australian with whom I had not previously had contact rang me. I said to her that I would not put her on written answers only - unfortunately, many journalists at The West Australian do not have the capacity to give a balanced position; we never expect The West Australian to be pro the government, but we want a balance - but that I would talk directly to her. Unfortunately, of course, only one part of what I said was reported and, indeed, the whole flavour of the article was opposite to what I had said. The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
I guess it is a case of whether it is true or whether we read it in The West Australian . I am a bit of a risk-taker, Mr Speaker. A young journalist called Jennifer from The West Australian with whom I had not previously had contact rang me. I said to her that I would not put her on written answers only - unfortunately, many journalists at The West Australian do not have the capacity to give a balanced position; we never expect The West Australian to be pro the government, but we want a balance - but that I would talk directly to her. Unfortunately, of course, only one part of what I said was reported and, indeed, the whole flavour of the article was opposite to what I had said. The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
The government has no plan to scrap the compulsory wearing of helmets. I acknowledge that I said to the journalist that we would always look at and assess the research on bike helmets. However, without having had an opportunity to look at the research, it seemed to us that scrapping them was not in keeping with the information that we had. In particular, I went to a lot of trouble to give her some data. I told her that national studies had shown that the participation rate for cycling in Western Australia was up at 13.8 per cent of the population and that Western Australia was doing very well compared with national figures. I also explained that we have counters for monitoring the Perth bicycle network and that the annual monitor had shown in the past four years that the use of the network had increased by 101 per cent. I also went on to explain to her that bike sales in Australia last year were 1.1 million, a 13 per cent increase over the number of new cars; that is, more bikes than cars are being purchased. I went on to say that her contention that people were not cycling more because they had to wear helmets was not supported by the evidence that we had to date, and that the evidence from the most recent surveys indicated that only one per cent of people cited the need to wear a helmet as the reason for not cycling. Lack of time, at 17 per cent, was cited as the most common reason. I gave that evidence to the journalist but it did not manage to find its way into the article. Since then we have been able to determine - An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
An opposition member: Author, author! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : I will get onto the author, as that is very interesting. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reviewed 63 research papers on this topic and came to the conclusion that cyclists who do not always wear helmets are twice as likely to suffer serious injury and non-helmeted cyclists were three times more likely to do so. There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
There is one final vignette I must share with The West Australian ; that is, an e-mail I received today from the University of New England. The e-mail makes it clear that, contrary to the reportage in the paper, the person mentioned in the article was not and had never been employed by the university and that, as far as the university knows, she works on animals in the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
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