The powerful security bollards at Parliament House have successfully stopped five cars since November 2017, preventing tonnes of speeding steel from coursing around the building.
The problem: the vehicles brought to a crashing halt were all luxury government whips, intended to carry politicians to and fro the Canberra landmark.
Here’s footage of a totally separate bollard-related SNAFU to give you an idea of what’s been happening in our nation’s capital:
Citing the Department of Parliamentary Services, the Age reports most of the impacted Commonwealth cars were damaged to the point of being written off. Crushed transmissions and punctured undercarriages are among the reported issues.
Recent human error appears to be the cause of the bollards’ premature erection. While the system once ran automatically, the pneumatically-operated barriers have been manually deployed since the start of Parliament House’s controversial security upgrade.
No injuries have been reported as a result of the incidents, and no pollies were inside the vehicles at the time. Maybe the Minister for Border Protection can have a look into this one.
AP
