Noise and increasing health hazard

The Prime Minister, 10th May 2008
Parliament House,
Canberra

Dear Mr Rudd,

NOISE
AN INCREASING HEALTH HAZARD

I must draw your attention to the sometimes devastating effects of Noise and ask your government to urgently allocate an appropriate level of concern to it.

Noise affects most of us these days. Noise is simply defined as “any unwanted sound.” Noise levels are increasing in intensity and scope with a consequent heightened potential for disruption to our lives. This is just one reason why we anti-Noise activists at Quiet Australia and Noise Watch Australia and Quiet Tasmania are working so diligently to secure long-overdue change in the mindset of the nation.

I have complained to my local police about distressing noise in my area but generally find them uncooperative. Unfortunately it appears that this reaction is universal.

To add insult to injury a police officer suggested that I should in effect buy my peace by moving away from the sphere of the offender's influence.

Moving house and home does not come cheaply, and in many cases where people have reluctantly taken this life-disruptive step they find themselves in similar circumstances to those from which they hoped to escape. There is usually a heavy penalty for the one forced to relocate but the offender pays nothing.

The attitudes of law enforcement agents and agencies urgently need correcting.

For a complainant with a legitimate grievance to be told “Leave the young ones alone and go into retirement home” or “You are mental and need assessment” is insulting and is quite unacceptable behavior, Clearly it is also very bad police conduct.

These demeaning attitudes constitute lazy discrimination against those who only ask for peace and quiet within their own homes.

Defiant and abusive conduct like this is not, and should never be, the normal role of
enforcement officers in a democratic country.

Contrary to a victim's initial expectations, among the most negligent of health authorities are councils' Senior Environmental Health Officers !

Most of these officers, when called to an obvious noise incident, will eventually attend reluctantly but only under extreme pressure from the disturbed or distressed complainant.

It is a huge shock for many complainants to find that council and police officers often side with the offender.

Unfortunately, official lack of interest and evasion of duty has become rife to such an extent that our law enforcers appear conditioned to "keep the peace" by upholding activities of offenders while simultaneously turning their official powers against the innocent!

This outrageous perversity produces severe depths of despair and exacerbates the victim's ongoing detrimental health sufferings.

This dangerous trend defies the values that are the very foundation of democracy and must not be allowed to continue.

When the officers of the law actively support law-breakers our democracy becomes corrupted and we find ourselves dangerously close to what occurs in hostile, oppressive dictatorships.

I believe that, in my area, illicit drug use is a major cause of bad neighborhood disputes and
sometimes the resultant violence.

Savage dogs are an increasing problem as well as the general din from barking invading one’s home and wrecking one's right to peace.

I know that barking dogs is a prime cause of disruptive noise and this worsening problem is
commonly left unattended by many councils.

Noise can disrupt our home lives, our activities and our rest by interfering with sleep, speech,
leisure or study. There will always be adverse health effects from this worsening malady.

Police and council officers commonly defy the law by supporting the law breakers while willfully neglecting the very legitimate concerns of the victims.

The law, as wrongfully applied by so-called law enforcement officers, is condoning the illegitimate behaviour of numerous wrongdoers. No wonder that our society appears increasingly out of control!

That is not the way the law is intended to work and a Prime Minister, being the leader of a nation, must never support the denial of rights of those who seek to access the health benefits intended by ensible law. To do otherwise is to approach the slippery-slide to anarchy.

It is simple logic that sensible law should be properly and fairly enforced.

I request an examination of all Noise laws and ask that any shortcomings be properly and promptly addressed.

I invite you to accept my comments herein and to allocate appropriate resources to correcting the general problem nationwide.