MEMBER for Hill Shane Knuth has accused the Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey of being “blatantly disrespectful” after failing to show up to a meeting Mr Bailey’s office organised.
The meeting was planned to discuss the issue of an unmanned speed camera that was posted on the Malanda/Atherton Road in September.
The camera caused a stir in the community after it dished out hundreds of fines in the short time it was in operation, with many locals adamant that the camera was not functioning correctly.
These locals then approached Mr Knuth who has then raised it with Mr Bailey, requesting physical evidence surrounding the camera’s accuracy.
The Member for Hill has requested this evidence several times over the past three weeks but to date nothing has been provided.
After Mr Knuth put forward a Question without Notice to Mr Bailey reqesting the evidence, the Minister’s office rang and arranged a meeting with himself and fellow KAP members only to send a staff member to the meeting to say it was cancelled.
“This is not good enough especially after he committed to investigate the matter,” Mr Knuth said.
“We don’t believe he has the documentation to prove that the machine was correctly calibrated.
“We have written letters, provided him with hundreds of short statements from those with speeding fines, asked a number of questions and spoke to the issue.
“Still, he continues to evade us and fails to provide proof that the speed camera was calibrated correctly.”
Mr Knuth said there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest this section of road was a high crash incident location which warrants the placement of this device.
To date 363 individuals have contacted the Hill Electorate office with 590 fines and will have to fork out close to $300,000 before Christmas.
“These types of cameras aren’t about road safety – they are about racking in as much revenue for the Government as possible,” he said.
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