An open letter to the Premier

Yesterday marked our biggest event yet, with an attendance of approximately 1200 cars. Behaviour was fantastic from all concerned and everything went swimmingly, until the Police set up shop down the road. I have since written an open letter to the Premier of Queensland, Campbell Newman, which I will be posting on his facebook page. I shall document the conversation here, for everyone to see publicly. Feel free to comment at bottom, or on the comment itself.

Dear Premier

Back in October 2012, I wrote to you requesting assistance with giving automotive enthusiasts a place to enjoy their hobby and legitimate past-time. At that time you supported us and kindly arranged a meeting with both Police and Transport. During this meeting, Transport representatives were fantastic, while Police representatives were aggressive and not to be reasoned with. At the time, I decided that it would be better to simply avoid crossing paths in future.

Yesterday, I organised one of the biggest events for car enthusiasts that Queensland has ever seen, at the Rocklea Showgrounds. Over 1200 vehicles attended from a range of enthusiast disciplines from four wheel drives to classics, drag cars, Japanese, and supercars. The Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs and the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party also attended and made presentations, making this a political meeting as well. The behaviour of attendees was exemplary – I have never seen so many enthusiasts behave so well. There were no burnouts, no skids, no antisocial behaviour whatsoever. The event was legal, held on private property and registered with the Special Interest Vehicles scheme.

Despite this, Queensland Police set up a sting operation where officers from as far afield as Ipswich were invited to shoot fish in a barrel. I immediately spoke to officers in charge at both locations, but was met with arrogance and an inability to be reasoned with. At one point, an officer compared defecting car enthusiasts to, I quote “if you want lollies, go to a candy store”. I have heard of dozens of stories of unreasonable force by officers. One example was where a representative from the Motorama Holden car dealership brought along a brand new vehicle from the lot to display it, and was held up for 30 minutes while officers went over it with a fine tooth comb in an effort to find something wrong with it. When he protested, he was told that they would keep going until they found something. I have the gentleman’s contact details if you would like to verify this disgraceful occurrence yourself.

The icing on top of the cake was when two officers attended from another branch closer to the city, and requested to gain access to the grounds to find a child who had been missing for over 2 hours. We assisted them to locate said child, who has been reunited with his family (and had a great time at the event). The community has rightly questioned why the 30+ officers who were manning the defect stations were unable to lower their fine books to look for a missing person for a few minutes, and the more cynical have suggested that it may be that locating a child doesn’t pay as well as fining people for truly trivial things such as slightly too dark window tinting (which I may add was done using un-calibrated equipment).

As a result, there has been a significant backlash from our community of 50,000. I would not be surprised if you and your party lost at least 20,000 votes at the upcoming election as a direct result of this blatant harassment yesterday. All it would take to fix the situation is to command Police to work with us; avoid specifically targeting events where people are trying to do the right thing; and respect an exclusion zone around sanctioned, legitimate events.

When I received your response to my enquiries last time, I was hopeful that we would be able to work together with government and give a significant part of the community events that would be supported by the government instead of being specifically targeted and discriminated against. You claim that you want to address the problem of hooning. So do I. Targeting well-behaved enthusiasts at a legal, sanctioned, registered family-friendly motoring event is not the way to do that. At this point, I’m disappointed and promoting an alternative political party who is able to respect people doing the right thing.

Matyas
Director
Downshift

P.S. For your reference, the reference on your return correspondence is EP/AF08 – TF/12/27960 – DOC/12/221427, dated 18 December 2012.

Edit: 26 August

The Premier himself has responded to my initial letter. Here is his response:

Hi Matyas, Thanks for sharing your concerns about your experience at Rocklea yesterday.
These police enforcement activities are an operational matter for the Queensland Police Service under the direction of the Police Commissioner. I cannot direct the Police Commissioner in these matters.

However, I do agree with you that it is not okay to single out car enthusiasts, if that’s what has occurred.

You should know that you can refer this matter to the Crime and Misconduct Commission for investigation. If you are not comfortable contacting them directly, I would be happy to refer this issue on your behalf if you provide me with specific details of what happened and your contact details.

I understand that the majority of car enthusiasts do not set out to break the law and I recognise the efforts of community leaders in encouraging safe and responsible behaviour on our roads.

I’m sure you can appreciate that the Queensland Police play an important role in keeping our community safe by enforcing road rules while also meeting the high standards the community expects of them.

You can email me via http://www.thepremier.qld.gov.au/tools/contact.aspx

Rgds.
Cam

I AM comfortable, and will be contacting the CMC. More to follow.

Edit: 28 August

I have now written to the Premier asking him to refer the matter to the Crime and Misconduct Commission. I have also written to the Ethical Standards Committee within the Queensland Police Force. I will continue to post developments. Here is the letter:

Dear Premier,

As per my open letter to you on your facebook page and your response, I am writing to ask you to refer the matter of discrimination and targeting of car enthusiasts to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

I have attached a letter with the same information I have provided to you, which can be forwarded to the CMC. (letter attached)

Here are some more details which will simplify investigation:
2-5pm
25 August 2013
Rocklea Showgrounds
Operation conducted on Ipswich Rd, its service road and Marshall Rd, Rocklea.
Officers were from Oxley Traffic Branch and Ipswich State Traffic Task Force, I believe.

I appreciate your assistance. I can be contacted on 04XX XXX XXX, or contact@downshiftaus.com for further information.

Regards,

Matyas Fulop

Edit: 29 August

I just received a call from a lady from the Premier’s Office, under direct order from the Premier himself, seeking further clarification on what happened on Sunday. We spoke about the new hoon laws, legalities of things like tinting and vehicle height, but more importantly, about how Police approach/target/discriminate against modified car owners. I expressed that we have always been willing to work together, but heavy-handed enforcement action like Sunday’s is not the way forward.

Further details as we get them.

Edit: 4 November

The Premier has finally responded in writing to the above! Here is his letter:

Following this, I am looking to talk to the Minister for Police more, as well as working with another couple of organisations to put together a meeting where QPS reps can answer your questions and concerns in person. Keep an eye on our facebook page for details. Also, as you may have noticed, we didn’t have an October meet. I am exploring different options to be able to protect you, our valued fans, from overzealous Police enforcement action, especially given the new laws came into effect on 1 November. In the meantime keep tabs on what’s going on through our facebook page, and come out to our Circuit & Coffee mornings, which we’re looking at running monthly!

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