Premier bans booze breaks after RTA promotion
THE NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally, has banned alcohol at all RTA promotions, admitting that alcohol supplied at a young driver safety event this year sent a ”very confusing message”.
The Herald revealed yesterday that young drivers who had signed the RTA’s Slow Down Pledge had been given free alcohol and food at the cricket in January as a reward for taking a pledge not to speed.
Photos have since been posted on the campaign’s Facebook page showing young people drinking and commenting on how drunk they had got at the event.
”I think it doesn’t pass the commonsense test and that’s why today I have directed that no further RTA promotions will involve the use of alcohol,” Ms Keneally said yesterday.
”I think this whole event could have been held without any alcohol at all and that’s why the RTA will not, in the future, hold any promotions that involve the use of alcohol.”
Not all RTA events will shun alcohol – only those involving road safety. Alcohol will still be served at the authority’s staff awards and other events that are not specifically related to safe driving.
The Minister for Transport and Roads, David Campbell, whose sacking was called for over the event, said: ”Clearly the service of alcohol was not in line with the broader road safety message and we have taken action to ensure it won’t happen again.”
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the RTA said the authority did not have data on how many people at the event signed the pledge.
The event, managed by the public affairs outfit Hill & Knowlton, cost $12,000. The RTA did not provide a breakdown, requested by the Herald, of how much alcohol that involved.
