Big-Gov Desperation: Now we need a $3,000 parking fine to keep sacred “EV” charging spots clear

By Jo Nova

Block a sacred weather-changing EV from a charging point and you may have to sell your car

Feel the fear. The whole EV fantasy is coming undone as people miss planes, get stuck in cars, or ruin holidays because their battery is flat. There aren’t enough chargers, and charging is slow. In abject desperation, some Australian states are slapping monster fines on to make inadequate infrastructure stretch further, or because they realize how vulnerable they are to a protest campaign. Either that or they are actually trying to finance the transition to NetZero through parking fines. Call it a secret subsidy…

Victorians may be hit with a $370 fine if they drive a normal car and accidentally park it in an EV charging spot, thus depriving a sacred EV user of the chance to top up. You might think that’s wildly out of proportion — it’s only $100 less than if you recklessly run a red light. But it’s nothing compared to what NSW, Queensland and the ACT are doing. Drivers in these states who make the same mistake could end up paying, respectively, a blistering $2,200, $2,875, or $3,200.

It’s just climate maths at work isn’t it? Take any normal number and extrapolate to bankruptcy.

How long would I have to spend in jail for non-payment, I wonder?

Drivers face steep fines for parking non-electric vehicles in electric vehicle charging stations

by Someone at The ABC

So it’s written in the road rules but “little known”?

The fines, some of them added to road rules late last year, range from $3,200 in the Australian Capital Territory to $369 in Victoria.

Drivers could be fined as much as $3,200 for parking in spaces for electric vehicles as part of little-known penalties introduced in four states and territories.

Remember when they said EV charging would be fast and convenient, and it would be easy to build a network of chargers? Then they found out the lack of EV charging spaces is threatening their whole fantasy transition…

But experts say the heavy penalties are important to encourage electric vehicle adoption and prevent drivers doing the equivalent of parking “in front of a fuel bowser”.

Yes, because lots of people accidentally park in front of fuel bowsers and go shopping, right? Lots, as in —  absolutely no one, ever. Maybe because fuel bowsers aren’t sometimes placed in what used to be normal parking spots.

You might be ICE-ing a climate warrior…

Apply a malignant acronym, and suddenly these car drivers who park in a spot with a charger sound like terrorists or a drug gang:

The fines apply to drivers who leave petrol or diesel vehicles in spaces designated for electric cars, in an act known as “ICE-ing” for its use of internal combustion engine cars.

So EV drivers need another subsidy then?

NSW Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward said the government added the offence to “support the transition to electric vehicles on our roads”.

“To make sure we keep the community moving forward, we want electric vehicle drivers to have access to charging stations when they are on offer,” she said.

It’s the sense of entitlement that shines like leaders of a weather cult:

Australian Electric Vehicle Association national president Chris Jones said while the penalties for blocking infrastructure were high, they were necessary to educate members of the public who may not have considered the repercussions.

People who aren’t driving EV’s must be really really stupid, yeah? In Chris Jones’ vision, the sort of fine that stops dumb punters running a red light needs to be five or ten times bigger so they understand how they are threatening the planet, or at least, threatening his plans to sell more EV’s.

Imagine if EV cars were a personal luxury, doing almost nothing of benefit to society, and everyone was expected to learn new rules, avoid their parking spaces, and practically go to jail if they made a mistake?

Electric Vehicle Council policy head Jake Whitehead said the fines sent “a very clear and strong signal”.

But he said greater education may be needed for petrol car drivers who encountered chargers added to existing car parks, as well as new electric vehicle drivers who did not recognise the need to vacate charging locations for other drivers as soon as practical.

At least they recognise that some EV drivers also haven’t read and memorized Labor’s Powering Australia Plan either. Nor, after being sold sunshine on stilts, have they figured out that the rushed EV-transition is doomed to run up hard against the brutal reality of charging times and access to kilowatts.

Imagine how inconvenient it would be as an electric car owner to have to return to your car from shopping or a business lunch because the car’s finished charging and you need to park it somewhere else or face a $3,000 fine? Don’t worry, there will be a phone App for that soon, so your car can call you.

The cult confuses “want” with “need”:

“Every charger available is critical and valuable to the fleet of 80,000-odd EVs in the country, and we need to make sure they’re not blocked, either intentionally or accidentally,” he said.

“There are genuine mistakes made by some people, but we need to have a broad recognition across society that these chargers need to be available to EVs so we can have more on our roads.”

Every charger is critical to keep their fantasy alive…