Meet Ricky Muir the car enthusiast

Ricky Muir calls for driver education in schools, wants more police on the roads, and will stop the government from shutting down the car industry early.
 
Senator Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiasts Party has called for driver education to become part of the school curriculum, is not in favour of raising speed limits and would like to see more highway patrol on the roads rather than speed cameras.
 
He also says he’s “moved on” from last month’s TV interview with Mike Willesee which left a nervous Senator Muir struggling for words in his first ever media interview.
 
“There’s no point in crying over spilt milk, I knew they had the footage, it turned out the way it did, so be it. I’m happy to keep moving forward,” said Senator Muir.
 
In a meeting with motoring media at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway today, where he completed the Drive to Survive advanced driver training course, Senator Muir also reaffirmed his intention to help block the Federal Government from cutting $500 million in assistance to the car industry.
 
Earlier today, Holden said Australia’s three car manufacturers -- Toyota, Ford and Holden -- would be forced to close early if the cuts were made because suppliers were dependent on funding pledged under the former Labor Government.
 
“We’re having conversations with the government, the cross-benchers and opposition and we’re also speaking with the (car manufacturing) industry,” said Senator Muir. “(The parts supply sector) is something we’re very interested in supporting.”

Contrary to how some people may view car enthusiasts, Senator Muir said he was not in favour of raising speed limits, but he did believe a stronger police presence on the roads was a better deterrent than speed cameras.
 
“(Road safety) is definitely about appropriate speeds,” said Senator Muir. “There are some roads that definitely couldn’t handle an increase in speed limits, not without repairs.”
 
The Australian Automobile Association has been lobbying for a greater portion of revenue raised in fuel excise to go back into roads; at present less than a third goes towards the road network.
 
Senator Muir said he is passionate about improving the safety of young drivers. The 33-year-old former timber mill worker and four-wheel-drive enthusiast told News Corp Australia: “Driver education is key to avoiding the crash in the first place. We need to be (educating) people as early as possible. That’s why we’re here, to get as many peak bodies together as possible and actually start the conversation: how do we address this and start looking at a driver education program?”
 
The meeting heard from car crash survivor Jarrad Ingram who was left brain-damaged after crashing his ute at high speed when he was 20 years old.
 
“I made a dumb choice,” Ingram, now 28, told the audience during a touching speech given in slurred words. It was enough to bring Fiona Scott, the Federal member for Lindsay in western Sydney, almost to tears.
 
Mr Ingram was left in a coma for 14 days and now has a lifelong rehabilitation program because “a brain injury is forever”.
 
When Senator Muir was asked if he would prefer more highway patrol cars on the road or speed cameras, he said: “When people see a police car they start behaving very quickly, so police presence is very important on the road.”
 
Senator Muir revealed the only time he was issued with a traffic ticket was when he was 18. He was driving on the wrong side of the road near an unfamiliar town because he thought he was travelling on a dual lane highway.
 
“It looked like I was in a dual lane, I was in a different town, and it wasn’t a dual lane and I got pulled over and questioned about it for being on the wrong side of the road,” said Senator Muir. “It certainly wasn’t intentional.”

The other motoring-related item on Senator Muir’s “to-do” list: reintroduce regular registration safety checks. Most states have relaxed the annual checks on older cars and safety experts are concerned this is leading to an increase in old “clunkers” on our roads.
 
“That’s an issue that’s come up quite a lot lately. I don’t think it’s acceptable that a mechanic has a car come in with bald tyres but the owner’s been told to fix just one thing, and it’s gone back out on the road unsafe.”
 
Anyone questioning Senator Muir’s motoring enthusiast credentials, fear not. He currently has three cars of varying ages and running condition: a 10-year-old Ford Falcon XR8, a 15-year-old Nissan Terrano II 4WD (“for the family”) and a 1990s Holden Commodore wagon drag racing car in pieces in the garage.
 
He sold his old Toyota LandCruiser to buy the Ford. And when he’s not on four wheels he spends time on one of his five dirt bikes.
 
His dream car is not a Porsche, a Rolls-Royce or a Bugatti Veyron, the world’s fastest car, but the Ford Falcon XC Cobra from the late 1970s, made famous after the muscle car scored a one-two finish at the Bathurst motor race.
 
When asked which car he disliked the most, he came back with a firm “no comment”. Clearly he doesn’t want to get any constituents off side.