Changing gears

Changing gears The power of listening

To be a voice for our members we must listen to members. Thankfully there’s no shortage of Tasmanians telling us what they think about the core issues we advocate for on their behalf, writes Garry Bailey

Almost every day our community and advocacy team is contacted by members on subjects as diverse as fuel prices, electric vehicles, the state of our roads and road safety. There are many sage suggestions that have been incorporated into what we do.

Our community road safety programs are also great listening posts to monitor the concerns of Tasmanians.

Our three regional advisory committees have given sterling service to the organisation and its members for many years and the policies that are the foundation of our advocacy are the result of their advice.

As our contact with individual members showed, there was a great resource of equally good advice and guidance from potentially thousands of members, and we needed to tap into that.

As a result, with the support of our Board and our Community and Advocacy Committee, we have constructed a new way to use the skills, knowledge and experience of our members more effectively.

We now have two panels of members, which, importantly, includes many of the current regional advisory committee members, to increase our understanding of what members think and want.

Initially we contacted the Tasmanians who participated in our federal election campaign. We have also formed a smaller expert panel, largely comprised of current regional advisory committee members.

And we are progressively adding to the panels as we ask our members who call in on issues whether they want to join. There’s been 100% acceptance from them so far. That’s a small but important pointer to member enthusiasm for the concept.

There will be regular surveys of panel members on advocacy matters and, of course we need their observations on what they see as important feedback on regional issues – be it roads, road safety, EV charging, land-use planning, public transport, active travel, or heavy vehicles.

Our first survey on road safety went out to panel members in September and we have reported back to them on the results. What we found particularly was a strong alignment with our long-standing positions on enforcement and speed limit setting.

We know, from recent experience, just how influential the views of our members are. When we urged the State Government to reintroduce mobile automated enforcement cameras, a potent weapon was the fact that 83% of members surveyed supported the position. That’s a number that would comfort any decision-maker.

Keep updated with our road safety advocacy at

ract.com.au/advocating-change

Have your say

Every day members call our contact centres, pop into a branch or give us feedback on our website ract.com.au/ advocacy-feedback-form

If your concern needs to be addressed urgently, you can use one of the following recourses:

For issues relating to State Roads, contact the Department of State Growth - Transport Services. Transport Services also has a 24/7 hotline (1300 139 933) to report any issues such as potholes, damaged signs or barriers and even emergencies or safety hazards.

Head to the Local Government Association of Tasmania website to reach out to the relevant council regarding a local government road.

Alternatively, visit the Snap Send Solve smart phone app to send any road quality or maintenance issues directly to the government or your local council. You need to provide photos as evidence.

For road safety concerns relating to police enforcement, contact the Tasmania Police assistance line on 131 444.

For issues relating to heavy vehicle safety, contact the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.