What about personal responsibility?
I thought Frank Sartor, acting NSW Police Minister, was being pretty stupid when he called on the Federal Government to establish an inquiry into petrol prices, saying high costs are driving motorists to steal from service stations. Errr, Frank, what about an inquiry in NSW to discover why there are so many thieving bastards who think its alright to steal petrol (and I don’t mean the petrol companies, we know they are thieving, colluding, price fixing bastards). Sartor tried to put the blame squarely on the Federal government - high petrol prices, leads to theft, so do something to fix the petrol prices.
He got some backlash today (rightly so). Service Station Association president Richard Halstead said disinterested police unwilling to investigate petrol theft were to blame for the problems. He also went on to say (I’m only quoting this because I like his straight shooting comments):
“That is excusing people’s bad behaviour. That’s excusing crime. He’s living in la la land and I’m a Labor supporter.
“‘The bloke (Mr Sartor) is a nincompoop. And you can quote me on that.”
Of course, what this increase in petrol theft might lead to is widespread introduction of having to prepay for fuel. What a fucking hassle that would be! All because there are a small minority of dickheads who seem to think stealing is an acceptable way of getting things they are having trouble affording - maybe cut out the cigarettes and beer, they might find their budget stretches to cover the essentials like food, housing and transport.
Technorati Tags: petrol prices, fuel theft, prepayment
July 14th, 2006 at 7:11 am
I witnessed someone stealing petrol about a week ago.
Actually i was quite relieved that was all they did. They looked very shifty indeed, and i stalled for as long as i could waiting for them to go inside, becuase i was convinced they were going to hold up the joint!
I gave the license plate number to the owner, but he said it was probably stolen. He didn’t even bother to call the cops!
July 14th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I thought it was interesting to note that one young fella (~20) they were splashing over the boobtube a few days ago was driving a 2yr old 5 series BMW. So, he can afford to be a wanker, but not to fill up the tank.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Funny too, I invariably think young guy, flash car = (a) wanker, (b) drug dealer.