The press release.

NSW MINISTER FOR ROADS MICHAEL DALEY MP
N E W S R E L E A S E

MINISTER AGREES TO FURTHER CONSULTATION ON CAR MODIFICATION LAWS
Wednesday 29 July 2009

Minister for Roads Michael Daley today met with representatives from the 4WD communityand car industry who asked for the introduction of proposed vehicle modification rules to be delayed and for more time to consult.

Mr Daley said he agreed to put the rule changes on hold and that more consultation was needed following the meeting.

Ive listened to feedback from the industry and the community, and have agreed to set up a working party to look more closely at how we are going to address this road safety issue, he said.

All of those who attended todays meeting agreed that safety is paramount and that unsafe modifications of vehicles do need be stamped out.

The working group will include representatives from the NSW Centre for Road Safety,

Four Wheel Drive NSW-ACT, Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association, the Australian 4WD Industry Council as well as other agencies and experts, Mr Daley said.

Executive Director of Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association Stuart Charity said this was a terrific outcome.

Were passionate about road safety and we understand the intent of the regulation is to make the roads safer he said.

Were looking forward to working towards a practical solution that meets road safety objectives while also taking industry views into account, Mr Charity said.

Greg Redfern from Four Wheel Drive NSW-ACT also welcomed the outcome and said the working group would have their full support.

We want to eliminate unsafe practices in the driving community and well work with the government to make sure these new regulations meet those objectives without any adverse consequences for the motoring community at large, he said.

We all agree that there is no place for extreme and illegal modifications, but the clubs in our association follow a strict code of conduct and ethics, and we want to make sure theyre not punished, Mr Redfern said.

Contact: 9228 5665

Great news..... I've put it on another forum

This is good news for me. I am just about to register a lowered splitty! Looks like the emails and letters actually worked!

Cheers

Steve

With all those references to the 4WD clubs they might just change it so that you can lower by 50 but raise to whatever you fancy.

check out the AAAA site and they have a performance interest aswell PRTC so hopefully it will cover lowering aswell. And a 4x4 section.

I reckon he realized the backlash that would happen if it did go through......

Hi

I'm getting my daily 1303 engineered soon for some minor things. I just called the engineer, he knows nothing about VS150 being put on hold. As usual the people at the coalface are the last to know.

Steve

Hi

When I spoke to the engineer he was talking about the RTA having all the specifications of newer cars so that they can accurately measure how much the car has been lowered or raised.

With older cars (like ours) it was a certain mm drop on the bump stops which can be open to some degree of interpretation.

The 600 mm headlight rule is a real stickler for bugs as they are close to that from the factory.

The 600 mm headlight rule has sound reasoning behind it, when you headlights are correctly adjusted they give a certain reach of light, so that you can see where going, a debatable point on VWs.

When you lower a car and have the headlights adjusted to give the reach of light the headlight would need to be adjusted up higher, this would cause the headlights to dazzle other drivers.

When I fitted Aero guards to my old yellow bug, they were made with a higher headlight bucket to help keep the headlight height correct.

Ive given this some thought and the only thing I can come up with fitting a small ADR approved headlight beam in place of the existing headlight beam and having the beam mounted as high as possible in the headlight opening.

Steve

whats a bumpstop, early rx7's must have headlights lower than 600mm?

Hi

It also comes down to how the car came from the factory, I remember when the cops had old XR6s, the headlights looked pretty low on those, should have got my tape measure out and done a citizens arrest.

What about lowlight Morris 1000s? Now they are low.

I'm no expert on the RTA engineering rules, I just have an interest.

Steve

How did we ever let them pull the GST on us?

I can see how he underestimated the resistance to this. I mean I could drive a totally stock Vee-dub long before I would cough up a red cent for the Medicare Levy Surcharge. Not much of a stink went up when that slid through.

http://www.nothoons.com.au 




Thank you for your email in regards to the Rees Labor Government's new vehicle suspension regulations.

As you may be aware, the Rees Government has recently backflipped on their harsh new vehicle modification laws, following pressure from the community and the media.

According to Labor Roads Minister Michael Daley, the new regulations will now be put 'on hold' to allow more time for consultation.

This is not good enough.

We are calling on the Minister Daley to rule out these changes indefinitely.

The fight is not over. Please take a minute to sign our online petition at http://www.nothoons.com.au  and help fight these out of touch new rules.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Stoner MP
Shadow Minister for Roads
Leader of The Nationals - NSW

Hi

Just signed it, I hope it does some good. When does you name appear?

Steve

Just signed up.
Hope Stoner's website is not limited to 25 names........

Hi

Just got this email from Andrew Stoner.

Dear Steve Carter,

Yesterday I again raised the issue of the proposed changes to vehicle height restrictions in NSW Parliament. You can watch a video of my speech here.

It has been over 4 months since the ill-conceived laws were first announced and then put on hold. Since then we have had yet another Labor MP take over the Roads portfolio - that is 7 Ministers since 2002!

It is now also over 2 months since the NSW Parliament was told that the current Minister for Transport was "considering" the matter. This is not good enough.

In my speech yesterday I referred to an email I received indicating that in some areas Police may already be telling motorists that their vehicle heights are now illegal.

Over 3,800 people have signed up to our online petition calling on the NSW Labor to rule out their ill-conceived changes once and for all.

Please continue to encourage your fellow 4WD and car enthusiasts to logon and sign our petition.

Thank you and have a safe and enjoyable time on the State's roads this coming festive season.

Sincerely


Andrew Stoner MP
Shadow Minister for Roads

The proposed legistration is just another polly trick at drumming up debate that will make an otherwise non performing minister look like they are doing something.

Using the Road Safety angle is a sure fire winner. I would suspect that the minister was fully aware this was dumb idea and was advised that issueing such a plan would improve his profile no end. No matter that the labor party would lose the votes of many thousands of car drivers.

Any publicity is good publicity