AUSBLUESWOMEN
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2008
- Messages
- 9
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2009
Im totally going to try to get my hours up LEGIT, but it might be hard.
And I got those hours BECAUSE I have a life. I drove everywhere that I needed to go, and if I didn't have anything to do and my sister needed to go somewhere, I'd drive that too.allira92 said:...mind you they have nothing better to do with their lives so they have plenty of time...
why did you wait until you were 19 instead of 18?Night hours are easy to do if you work in the night-time...otherwise just drive to a party or something. Heaps of my driving was done at night.
Anyway all of my hours (70) I did legit. I'm glad that I waited until I was older to sit for my P's as well because I felt way too immature and inexperienced at 17. I passed first go when I was 19.
...and now I've been suspended for low range speeding, fail.
nice example sa governmentRoad Safety Minister Tom Koutsantonis to keep job
SERIAL speeder and Road Safety Minister Tom Koutsantonis says there is "some good" in the humiliating revelation that he is guilty of more than 30 traffic offences.
In damage control this morning after his appalling driving record was revealed in the Sunday Mail and on AdelaideNow, Mr Koutsantonis has started a series of media interviews with a declaration that the scandal will help him push the road safety message.
"There is some good out of this," he told Radio 5aa this morning. "I'm going to try to sell the road safety message every time I'm asked about this," he said.
Mr Koutsantonis will keep his job despite being among the state's worst speeding offenders. An "embarrassed and disappointed" Premier Mike Rann is refusing to sack him and he is refusing to go.
But Mr Rann has warned Mr Koutsantonis that if he reoffends "he will no longer be Road Safety Minister". As a minister, however, Mr Koutsantonis has the use of a chauffer-driven car.
Should Koutansantonis be sacked? Vote in the poll to the right. Have you say in the comment box below.
The decision to retain his youngest Cabinet minister is despite calls from the Opposition and road safety experts for him to be either sacked or, at the very least, stripped of his portfolio.
It also is at odds with the Government's tough stance on hoon drivers.
Mr Koutsantonis, who was sworn in just over a month ago, admitted yesterday he had lost his licence for three months in 1998 for an accumulation of demerit points and had two speeding offences while he was driving a taxi before he entered Parliament.
But he said there were no passengers in the cab and he had been "chasing work". He admitted this morning that the speeds in these instances was "quite high".
Police sources said there was no doubt the minister should have lost his licence on at least three occasions, given the number, and type, of offences involved.
Mr Rann said Mr Koutsantonis had told him on the day he was elected to Cabinet he had lost his licence because of demerit points and had also told Parliament that he had had speeding offences.
Mr Koutsantonis said on radio this morning that although he had paid the fines for the offences, not all had been committed by him. he would not reveal how many were other peoples', however, because "my family is private".
He said he had taken responsibility for other peoples' bad driving and "that's why it looks so bad".
However, it is unclear if shielding another person from the deduction of demerit points is legal. Mr Koutsantonis told ABC radio this morning that he had not done anything dishonest in this regard.
"I haven't pretended or lied to anyone," he said.
Mr Koutsantonis also pointed out that in committing one offence of using a mobile phone while driving that "I was talking to a journalist at the time".
He also said he had "reformed" and that "my driving attitutude is very different to when I was a young man", although he conceded that he had offended within the past 12 months.
"It's out of my system, I don't do that any more. I'd rather be late for a meeting than speed," he said.
Mr Koutsantonis said yesterday that he was not aware of the full extent and details of all the speeding offences attributed to him nor was he sure if he was close to losing his licence. He would check all these details today.
Also yesterday, he said that, to the best of his knowledge, his last traffic offence was in 2005.
Mr Koutsantonis said he had three cars and some of the offences had been committed by other people driving those vehicles but he was "not taking the rap for somebody else" nor had he asked anyone else to take the rap for him.
"All the cars are registered in my name and each week I ask parents to take responsibility for cars that are registered in their names when their children or loved ones take them out," he said.
"So I can be no different. I take responsibility for every single one of those infringement notices."
In other developments in what is likely to develop into a running political sore for the Government, especially when Parliament resumes next week:
OPPOSITION Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said the Premier "has appointed a hoon driver to the post of Road Safety Minister".
POLITICS professor Dr Haydon Manning said the minister should be stripped of the Road Safety portfolio.
Mr Rann said his "message" to Mr Koutsantonis when he was first told he had lost his licence was "what I said to him yesterday ... that (he) could never, ever reoffend".
"He knows that and I made that extremely clear to him." Asked if he would sack Mr Koutsantonis, Mr Rann replied: "No. Because it occurred before he was a minister and because he had told me he had lost his licence.
"My view is he can make atonement and redeem himself. I know he lost a close friend in a fatal car crash in February of this year."
Mr Rann said Mr Koutsantonis had suffered major embarrassment and had paid his fines.
"He is not someone who ducks his record or changes his name or changes his story from day to day," he said.
Mr Koutsantonis yesterday said he was an example of a bad driver but "my attitude has changed".
"I want to make bad driving as socially unacceptable as smoking in a restaurant," he said. "There is no excuse for my past behaviour. I told the Premier I had lost my licence through the accumulation of demerit points."
Mr Koutsantonis said he was not pleading for forgiveness, he was speaking publicly to say "sorry" and that he had done the wrong thing.
Asked if he considered himself lucky to still have his job, Mr Koutsantonis said he considered himself lucky to still be in Parliament.
"I am here to say if I can change my attitude to road safety, others can too," he said.
"I apologise for my actions. Any excuse I get to come out and talk about road safety is a good thing."
Mr Koutsantonis said he had learned his lesson.
Mr Hamilton-Smith said "this minister has been going too fast and he's too furious". He said it was untenable for the Government to pitch a road safety record while keeping their own hoon in the ministry.
"It is beyond belief," Mr Hamilton-Smith said. He said it was 30 offences including eight in one year.
"Are there any other offences that have been committed that this minister has expiated," he said.
"I want to see all statutory declarations linked to this minister's driving history."
Dr Manning said the revelations were "absolutely embarrassing" for the Government. "He (the minister) has lost his credibility in the eyes of the voters," he said.
There's always someone that says something like that. Fuck off dude seriously.
Easy... Here's what happened with this guy I know.I think i actually did like 80hrs but i didnt write any of them in until the day before the test so i just made up 50 anyway.
They didnt even check it. How can they check it?
/facepalmEdit: hahahah suck my cock mvloving i only had to do 50hrs
Because I took forever in getting my log book hours up too.why did you wait until you were 19 instead of 18?
Also you're clearly still not mature enough. Even low level speeding significantly increases your chances of being involved in an accident blah blah blah.
fuck you rta, guess what? I did 160km in 80mins this morning
Rofl /agreeThere's always someone that says something like that. Fuck off dude seriously.
??/facepalm
yeah i was joking, fuck the rtaBecause I took forever in getting my log book hours up too.
I agree that I deserved to be suspended. I very rarely speed and if I do it is usually because of a lapse of awareness of my speed which isn't cool. But before the incident that day, I was nearly rammed by a truck on the F3 which is enough to shake anyone.
Your last sentence suggests that you also are too immature to be driving, seeing your average speed would have been 120km/h
Haha I seeyeah i was joking, fuck the rta