Sunday 22 November - Auckland

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

What a bloody good turn out for a damp morning!

In excess of 150-200 bikes of all shapes and sizes at a guess.
The main car park was full but for half a dozen cars and they had a flyer on explaining how lucky they were to have a space.
Bikes up and down both sides of the main seafront drag again with only a few cars with the obligatory flyer. The side roads also had bikes in them and every body had a whole 'car sized' space to themselves awesome.

Car drivers turning up to park were given a flyer appologising for the inconvenience and were no problem at all some even offering us good luck. The cafe owners were over the moon selling more breakfasts, coffee and brunches than normal and certainly on a wet Sunday morning and would welcome us back anytime.
Police were in attendance, visible and invisible! (anyone else spot the plain clothes commodore?). Everyone was well behaved so they were left sitting eating their dohnuts....I kid you not when I 'flyed' the cop car he was inside it eating a dohnut!
Mom presented a well written speach and rallyed our cause and I saw Prime TV, the New Zealand Herald and radio NZ covering it, who know we might make prime time and the front page.

Good to meet up with some of you again, until the next time eh!

Oh I thought I'd got away with bringing the Mrs and buying her a loverly cooked breafast but then she made me drive to the shore and I ended up buying a bloody book case too........today has cost me heaps.......thanks Mom.

Edit; To those that are 'monitoring' this site.........The bikers of New Zealand are bloody pissed off, if you think this is going to 'fade away' you are very mistaken. If you have an influence with who you report back to tell them to act at abolishing this levy increase 'sooner rather than later'!

[Dodgyiti]

(anyone else spot the plain clothes commodore)

Yep, and there was another on foot mufti with a wee notebook checking out the bikes and standing in the background.

[taff1954]

Made it to the RNZ website at least - Well done all of you north of the Bombays.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/storie...2/1245d4320b96

[Indiana_Jones]

Nice turn out, considering the weather

The prime chick was pretty fit lol

Great job Mom!

-Indy

[GOONR]

We were standing right behind you lot at speech time. I was wondering how you would get a shirt big enough to go over the whole shebang!

It's easy for me I'm a right skinny bastard!

[Mom]

Good morning. Thank you for coming along and joining us for brunch.

I don’t know about anyone else here, but when my alarm went off this morning it felt a bit like ground hog day.

I thought I would start off by asking a few questions.

How many of us turned out last weekend for the rolling protest in Auckland?

How many of us made the big trip to Wellington for Tuesdays “Damn the Levies” Bikeoi on Wellington?

How many of us are here for the long haul?

Okay, we are here today for a few reasons. First and foremost we are here to have brunch. This gathering is nothing to do with taking business away from people. If you have not done so already, please head over the road and have a bagel and coffee, or what ever else takes your fancy. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to some folk that have had to walk further than they normally would to get their Lattes this morning – you need to know this will be the reality should the government manage to tax us off the roads. The only difference is we will be in cars! You are probably wondering why bikers are so angry. We are here to tell you.

Right. Housekeeping out of the way, lets move on to the WHY we are here.

The media have reported the government have made a U-turn on these proposed levy increases, apparently we have got what we wanted. Apparently we have won! Can anyone smell Bullshit?

What about the Minister saying we cost more?

Ok, lets try this one for size,
Cars subsidize motorcycles…

Okay, so it seems that bikers are not to be pacified so readily.

This government, like any, have several ways to push through unpalatable legislation, or heaven forbid sneak things past a distracted populace.

One is - Divide and Rule - Divide and rule is such an easy way to foil any dissent. Turn them among themselves, that should do it. Well that did not work this time, we are not about to turn on ourselves. Every adult New Zealander pays ACC levies of some sort or another. If all of us are not deeply concerned about what is going on yet, we should be.

Toe in the Door – Okay, that has actually been successful in the past. So many changes that NZ voters over the years have accepted – or maybe even tolerated if they did not vote for the majority in Government. We are ALL guilty here – Our ACC levy was increased by a large amount recently and we just ATE IT! Just like we are going to do this time right?

This time however, the Government is using another tactic. They are attempting the classic “Smack in the Face” approach. Announce an outrageous increase in ACC levies on motorcycles and when the community is sufficiently up in arms about it turn around and reduce it to something less, they will roll over, they always do. Hammer the “easy target”, they are bound to make a big noise. This will distract everyone from what we actually doing. If these, goatee bearded, leather jacket wearing, tattooed bikers will create a big enough fuss, the general population will not notice all the other things we are doing. By the time they do realise it will be too late and everyone will simply roll over and accept it. Our toe in the door strategy always works. I am convinced these suits think we are a bunch of knuckle dragging Neanderthal Dick heads, though Tuesday should have shown them we are not.

With my sincere respect to all the goatee sporting/leathered up/tattooed bikers out there – I am none of those things, but, I am a biker, and I am angry! How dare they insult us by thinking we will roll over for a “smaller” levy increase. We won’t! This is much more than just us. Who’s next right?

I don’t know about you guys, but I am an employer, my levies are going up, I am an employee, my levies are going up. I buy petrol, my levies are going up, I own a car, my levies are going up, I ride a bike, my levies are going up! Motorcyclists encompass a broad and diverse range of our community. We have interests outside of riding our bikes. Surely we are not the only ones asking who’s next?

ACC, designed by Owen Woodhouse, and implemented in 1974, was designed and adopted to provide a scheme for all New Zealanders to benefit from in times of injury. It is unique in the world, because it negated the need to sue through the courts. In return for giving up that right, we received a system of compensation that treated everyone fairly. It was never user-pays, everyone contributed equally, and the fund covered you regardless of fault. The words risk and liability do not belong with the founding principles of the Act that ACC is based on. They belong to an Insurance company, which ACC was never designed to be.

Let us not forget we gave up the right to sue, in return for a NO FAULT injury prevention, rehabilitation and compensation scheme.

Speaking of being unique let me share this with you. The Price Water House Coopers report took 18 months to complete and is 470 pages thick. It says that NZ has a world class compensation scheme – other countries are using it as a bench mark and want to emulate it. US president Barack Obama has just come out and said he wants to introduce something similar in the USA to get rid of the litigious society they have and all the horrendous costs associated with it.

ACC is not broke! The "crisis" is an artificially engendered one to give spurious justification for actions that the Government could not otherwise justify. After all payouts, ACC has $1B more in funds at the end of the year than it did at the beginning. It also has $11b in assets behind it. The Council of Trade Unions also recognises this and on Thursday they appeared before the select committee overseeing the proposed changes to the ACC Act. They told the select committee, the Government has manufactured a crisis in ACC to justify large levy hikes and set the ground for a move to Privatisation. Oh really?

The levies we currently pay make up less than 1% of all levies collected – upping our levies so much makes no economic sense. We contribute so little to the pool, how can singling bikers out to pay so much more make a tiny bit of difference to the big picture? Smoke screen anyone?

So what do we want then?

It’s simple really. We want a FAIR GO. Equity. No-fault setting of levies. Equal contributions. Don’t penalise us for our choice of transport, or our leisure activity. Don’t penalise us for our vulnerability. Accidents and injuries are the result of mistakes. We should not be paying higher levies for being the victim of a mistake, no matter who made it. No fault remember. We want a return to the Woodhouse principles that founded the ACC scheme that sets us up as a first in the world. We want ACC to return to its roots, accident prevention and a no fault system.

Everyone should be asking questions about what National is attempting to do. We are not alone here. We are simply the EASY TARGET. EVERYONE will be affected by what is happening. Educate yourselves people. Get out there and spread the message.

So for the record – Somehow bullshit, bullshit, bullshit only conveys what we think…

What do we want?
Equity
When do we want it?
Now
ACC!
We wont pay
Woodhouse!
No fault

Thank you for giving up a lazy Sunday morning start to join us today. Enjoy your brunch. Ride safe home, see you soon.

[Fluffy Cat]

You guys are great....hats off to you.
A beauty.
Peace.........

[colonel]

I would like to thank those mad buggers from the Norf that got up before the crack of dawn and made the trip down, you guys are the best! I would also like to specially thank Guess Who. He is a youngster and he rode all the way up from Cambridge this morning to take part in this protest. Now the weather south was even crappier than it was at Mission Bay. That youngster gets my vote for top effort of the day!

anything to help good ride all in all. Keep up the good work

[gwigs]

Good turn out People ...

[SpankMe]

Good turn out People ...

Nice photo. , but the URL is backwards

[caseye]

It looked great from where I was standing SpankMe, course it had to be backwards from one side or the other, well done the Busa's.
Mom another great ride, speechifying, public educating.
The general public asked for information, so we made great in roads there too.
Cafe owner I spoke to thanked us all for coming, being polite and ordering heaps of stuff, they said they'd have us back anytime! That was the Riva cafe.
Why not give em a plug aye.

[SpankMe]

It looked great from where I was standing SpankMe, course it had to be backwards from one side or the other, well done the Busa's.
Mom another great ride, speechifying, public educating.
The general public asked for information, so we made great in roads there too.
Cafe owner I spoke to thanked us all for coming, being polite and ordering heaps of stuff, they said they'd have us back anytime! That was the Riva cafe.
Why not give em a plug aye.

They probably got a lot more business that what they would have normally with the weather being crap.

[Okey Dokey]

Great work to all involved. Mom, thanks for sharing your fantastic speech.

[short-circuit]

Well done Mom. Thanks for your hard work. Your speech was comprehensive and well delivered...bonus points for doing it without the aid of a megaphone and with such a low trajectory (even standing on a park bench).

[short-circuit]

I thought it was a good turnout. I perved over far more than 100 bikes.

The lady with the camera was quite a babe too.

Mom is a very good speaker and did a great job.

My fear is that we are making this political when it should not be.

The problem is a complete failure of the ACC system. I don't believe it makes sense to fund a private health service with public money. A public health service would make more sense. The service wouldn't be as good, but then beggars can't be choosers. The fact is that there are hundreds of private practices on the gravy train of guaranteed government money. These guys are getting very rich and milking the system.

I heard of a case of a $52,000 ACC claim for a sprained ankle with no complications. How can anyone be surprised about the $600m deficit?

If you have the money to ride a new Ducati then good luck to you, but some of us ride Suzukis (well at least I used to).

The fact is that if you want to maintain such a system, then it is going to be very very expensive and this is the choice that the NZ public has to make.

The previous government were hiding a $600m deficit and the idiots presently in power are doing their best to deal with something they no nothing about and don't have the correct information to advise them appropriately.

Sacking the ACC board was a good first move however will the new board be any better? They need time to work things out.

So if the decision is made to keep ACC in its present form is made; the next decision is to look at a fair way to fund it.

If the board of ACC is presently not even able to determine how many on road Motorcycle accidents are the fault of motorcyclists, which I understand that they are not able to; then they really are shooting in the dark.

My view is that we should not focus on the idiotic politics and politicians, but focus on the facts:

The present proposals will price motorcyclists off the road or to ride illegally.

The present proposals will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of cars on the roads.

The present proposals will put pressure on the NZ Road infrastructure leading to costly remedies.

The present proposals will lead to increased national fuel consumption at a time when we should be conserving its diminishing availability.

The present proposals will lead to an increase in pollution and potentially a resulting determination in the nations state of general health.

There are lots more however our message needs to be that Motorcycling is overwhelmingly good for the country and it should be encouraged rather than priced off the roads.

Maybe they should then start asking themselves how to go about reducing motorcycle accidents. It’s been done elsewhere with education, training, and a requirement for higher standards to pass a test.

All I am trying to see is that I think that the political challenge is the wrong way to go about raising awareness to this unfair assault on motorcyclists.

Some very good suggestions have already been made.

Let's go with the right ones!

Total bollox