Over-the Top with the Law By Peter West

     If things are not tough enough for our farmers, then we have this nonsense:
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-03-01/hay-load-just-2cm-over-width-sees-farmer-charged/10860572?fbclid=IwAR1FSvLlAXPkPv7SO3erQf_1JQTDeUR_-k74me0atCmSI6v5s8t5EcOC8kM

“A farmer in the New South Wales Riverina is $4,000 out of pocket in legal fees after the load of hay he was transporting was found to be two centimetres over-width. The drought had forced Brendan Murphy, a farmer from Ladysmith, to supplement his income with off-farm work. The job he took on in July last year was transporting 40 bales of oaten hay from Tarcutta in the Riverina to Murrumbateman near Canberra. The hay had been loaded by someone else, and his task was to drive the truck and deliver it. The financial gain for Mr Murphy from the trip was to be $230. He was stopped by the NSW Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) at Coolac on the Hume Highway where the truck and load of hay was deemed by three RMS inspectors to be two centimetres over-width. Mr Murphy was informed by inspectors he could not move the truck until the load was within the 2.7 metre width tolerance. It measured 2.72 metres at inspection. He said one of the inspectors, in particular, was not sympathetic to his cause of delivering hay to drought-affected farmers. "He was not understanding at all. He had one thing in mind and just went straight after me and there was nothing I could do about it," he said.

Fortunately, Mr Murphy knew a farmer nearby who was able to rearrange the load, and he was able to then continue transporting the bales. Mr Murphy said the difficulty with transporting low-quality hay was it shifted when loaded and was difficult to keep it within the parameters once travelling. Mr Murphy said it was difficult for farmers and transport operators to understand the RMS regulations for transporting hay bales. "When you speak to the RMS most of their people can't tell you the answers you need, it's just a bit ridiculous," he said. was a bit of surprise". He was charged with 'Fail to comply with dimension requirements — severe risk'. His case was heard in Wagga Wagga Local Court last week where he pleaded guilty, with an explanation. The fine he faced was more than $10,000. The RMS did not have a representative at court until Mr Murphy's solicitor contacted the RMS on the day. The case was then dismissed by Magistrate Christopher Halburd with no conviction recorded. Solicitor Zac Tankard, who represented Mr Murphy, says complex transport regulations are difficult for transport operators to interpret.

However, Mr Murphy was ordered to pay the $275 prosecution fee to the RMS. Solicitor Zac Tankard, who represented Mr Murphy, said it was a complex case. "Brendan's case was one where it was an overload by dimension width. If you have a heavy vehicle you are allowed a certain amount of allowed width. If you have something that goes over that width you are overloaded or over width and that is an offence," Mr Tankard said. Mr Tankard said Mr Murphy had purchased an NSW Class 3 Baled Commodities Dimension Exemption Notice from the RMS which enabled him to extend the load width from 2.5 metres to 2.7 metres. "But how the law works is that if you are over-width of that extended notice, it defaults back to the allowed width in the first place," he said. "In Brendan's case, the load was two centimetres over, but the law defaults back to 2.5 metres, so the law sees it that he wasn't just two centimetres over, he was 22 centimetres over.”

     All this simply shows how absurd the enforcement of laws actually are, when bee’s whisker lengths can lead to massive financial costs. This is red tape on steroids, and one wonders if there are better things to occupy inspectors time?