BOAT OWNERS’ASSOCIATION of NSW - Jet Skis Banned From Sydney Harbour

NSW Premier Bob Carr has announced a ban on jetskis in Sydney Harbour from 1st October.

The decision is little more than a political stunt, but it is a stunt that will have implications beyond the affected jet ski users.

The ban was introduced without consultation with the Waterways Authority Policy Advisory group.

It was announced by the Premier rather than the Minister, and it was announced as the Government was trying to deflect attention away from the furore surrounding changes to workers’ compensation legislation. There are probably very few members of BOA who will be disappointed to see the jet skis go.

But everyone who uses the harbour, or any part of the State’s waterways, should be concerned at the way this ban was introduced.

Bad behaviour by jet ski users has been a topic of concern with Waterways and the various representative groups for some time. When the Premier announced the ban he quoted some specific incidents that he claimed had forced him to the conclusion that a total ban was the only appropriate response.

Unfortunately, he provided no argument to support this claim. The incidents he quoted probably involved criminal activity; at the very least there were breaches of regulations. The Premier has provided no explanation as to why they could not be adequately handled under existing laws.

The Premier also alluded to the way that jet skis were annoying waterside residents and other waterways users. He likened jet skis on the harbour to noisy motorbikes in the Royal Botanic Gardens—rhetoric that owes more to the Premier’s proprietorial view of the Harbour than to his grasp of the reality of the situation. The seriousness of the incidents that the Premier referred to, and the nuisance caused by some jet ski users, cannot be questioned.

What must be questioned is the appropriateness of the response. BOA supports self-regulation as a general principle for management of public use of the waterways. But self regulation cannot work in isolation, and there are circumstances where enforcement is required. Jet skis have been subject to a significant amount of regulation, and all groups associated with the management of the waterways, including the jet skiers themselves, acknowledge the need for enforcement of rules over the behaviour of the rabble element. Waterways has been pursuing this approach, and, until the Premier’s unexpected announcement, there was no indication that any other approach was being considered.

Indeed, when Carl Scully announced significantly tighter regulations just 18 months ago, he made it clear that he believed that jet skiers who obeyed the rules were entitled to enjoy their sport. The Premier’s action has done nothing to resolve the problem. He has simply shifted it to less politically sensitive areas.

The Premier’s action is also inconsistent. While he is banning Jetskis the Government is continuing to licence commercial operators using high-powered inflatables whose sole purpose is to give the passengers a thrill doing exactly the same stunts and tricks that the jet skiers are being criticized for. And if the Premier wants to claim that these operators do their wake-jumping and 360 degree turns in the open ocean then he should tune in to some of the TV ‘advertorials’ that have been screened recently.
Management of public usage of the waterways cannot be allowed to fall victim to political point scoring.

BOA is concerned about the ban for a number of reasons.
♦ It was introduced for largely political reasons, bypassing the established consultative processes.
♦ It is a response that ignores other options.
♦ It sets a precedent that supports banning entire recreational activites from public spaces.

Some years ago Ivan Petch, Member for Gladesville, ran a campaign to keep ski boats out of the Lane Cove river – a campaign fuelled entirely by the need to grab the attention of a specific electorate.

More recently we have seen an attempt to keep all powered vessels out of Smiths Creek. If the Premier, without consultation, can ban jet skis from Sydney Harbour, then who can say that the proposed ban for Smiths Creek won’t be resurrected? A new sport we can expect to see in Australia soon is wake riding, where surfboard riders take advantage of boats especially configured to create as much wake as possible—a blanket ban on such an ‘anti-social’ activity is much simpler than trying to identify areas where those who would enjoy such a sport can do it without inconveniencing others.

About to hit the market in Australia are personal hovercraft – two-stroke-powered flying platforms that are equally at home on land and water. Slapping a blanket ban on these devices, under the same provisions as the jet ski ban, can be touted as another win for the environment.

But at what cost? The cost, of course, is the gradual but significant increase in the way the Government manages and controls our usage of public facilities. In the name of making the public resource avail- able to all it is, in fact, only available to those who choose to participate in those activities approved of by our political masters.

Use of public facilities by specific groups in a way that annoys local residents is hardly a new phenomenon

Anyone who has lived near a public oval can attest to the noise caused by football matches on the weekend. Or they might recall the annoyance caused by model airplane enthusiasts who would take advantage of the open space and still air of an early Sunday morning to fly their tiny planes with the loud motors.

Sharing public facilities with groups having different, and sometimes conflicting, interests is a part of modern society.

The conflicts must be dealt with in a manner that considers input from all affected parties and which strives for compromise. A politically-based blanket ban is not a reasonable approach to the problem.


BOAT OWNERS’ASSOCIATION of NSW
No: 39. July, 2001
Boat Owners’ Association of NSW
P.O. Box W3
Warringah Mall NSW 2100
Phone: 0408 164 361 Fax: 9907 7731
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Web Site: http://www.users.bigpond.com/BOA_NSW