BY A BAD LAW

doesn’t always stop when you fall off,” he joked. Back on a serious note, he said two-wheelers are good on open country but place the operator at risk in rocky areas or where there is a lot of fallen timber. Mr Bode, like so many primary producers who use quad bikes day in, day out, believes that operators who fool about or who don’t know the capabilities of quads are the ones who get hurt. “If you put on a sudden burst of acceleration when going up a steep back, the machine will fly over backwards on top of you. They are dangerous to people who DO NOT USE them properly,” he said. Mr Bode bought a UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle), six weeks ago. “It can’t do nearly as much as the quad. It’s just not as versatile,” he said.

Farmers’ voice

TONY Webber from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is perplexed as to how so many political and industry organisations are failing farmers on this issue. “Farmers need to get up and make their voices heard. It is the farmers who should be heard, not ACCC bureaucrats sitting in offices in Melbourne,” he said.

Honda is experiencing product demand during COVID-19 that is unprecedented. Generators are another item in short supply. Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season created a massive demand for generators when power lines were brought down across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. The factories in Thailand where the machines are manufactured have lost production during COVID-19, but supplies are getting back to normal. One surprise for Honda among this truckload of COVID surprises was the rush among home gardeners to buy tillers. People were locked up at home and they turned to growing vegies and went out and bought tillers — by the thousands.

’Not interested’

FARMERS and graziers who thought their political representatives might have gone into bat for them to stop the ACCC’S roll bar edict would ld b be mistaken. i Both Mr Toscano and Mr Hinton, from Honda Australia, said politicians across all parties were missing in action when it came to forcing the ACCC to overturn its ruling. Amazingly, Honda – the market leader – was never contacted by the ACCC or even by those peak industry bodies set up ostensibly to fight for primary producers. Mr Hinton and Mr Toscano told of how last year, representatives from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries met with the National Farmers Federation in Canberra to discuss the issue. The automotive industries’ federal chamber wanted to press the case to the farmers’ body that it should abandon its enthusiastic support for the roll bar ruling. After only 15 minutes the NFF responded by asking the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to leave the room. Cruel? You bet. One person told me the NFF “just wasn’t interested”.

The odd thing about all of this is that the ACCC’S ruling does not stipulate that sport and recreation quads ( pictured right) be fitted with roll bars. One person I spoke to from the

Australian Off-road Vehicle Association is predicting that farmers and graziers might turn to these agile-looking sports machines in lieu of agricultural quads.

Dealers

WHAT do the dealers say? Darren Wade, at Towers Motorcycles in Charters Towers, confirmed graziers are stocking up on four-wheelers. “They know the quads with bars will be more dangerous. Most people will forget the bars are there. A branch will catch and the bike will be flipped backwards. We’ve sold out, but will have more by September. We are hoping the law will be reviewed,” he said. Mr Wade has sold out of Honda 250s but will have more in stock in August … hopefully.

ADRIAN Redman, Ingham Toyota: “The model upgrade for the ’Cruiser ute has been put behind by factory shutdowns, but there are some on their way to Australia now. The 100 per cent tax write-off in the stimulus package has created a big demand.”

SCOTT Christopher, Rising Sun Honda: “Farmers are upset about the quad bike issue. They are an important tool to them. Australia is the only country that has come up with this law.”