Mark Webber for PM

"It's a great country, but we've got to be responsible for our actions..."

Even without context this comment should be applauded by any right-thinking individual. Yet this has got nice Mark Webber - the racing car driver originally from Queanbeyan in the ACT - into problems with Victoran government ministers and servants - AKA policeman.

Mr. Webber - upon returning to his home country to appear in the Formula 1 race in Melbourne - thought that Australia was now suffering from the affliction known as 'nanny government'. This is a condition in which citizens of their country are excessively governed and monitored and regulated by the very government they freely elect.

Mr. Webber made his nanny state comments in relation to speeding limits, parking regulations, and - one can only imagine - other aspects of local government road rules that so annoy any free spirit in charge of a motor vehicle. He complained about ''dodging the ridiculous speeding and parking [rules] and all the nanny-state [conditions] that we have down here in Australia''.

Yet he was also more broad-ranging in his thoughts:

"''I think we've got to read an instruction book when we get out of bed - what we can do and what we can't do … put a yellow vest on and all that sort of stuff...''

His off the cuff comments didn't suit the new moral crusaders, however. Taking time out from ad nauseum 'when-are-you-people-going-to-learn' remarks, various policemen and government ministers attacked Mr. Webber's free thought.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ken Lay said some of Webber’s fans were alive because of Victoria’s aggressive approach to road safety.

‘‘We’ve got probably one of the best road safety track records in the world, so I make no apology for our aggressive approach,’’ he told a local radio station.

No apology. Aggressive indeed. This is the voice of the self-empowered moral high groundsmen. Mark Webber made a observation, based on his experience as a international journeyman and - no doubt - from a fond remembrance of his younger life here in Australia.

But that has all changed. In the future whether young men from Queanbeyan grow up to become F1 drivers is neither here nor there; but if they grow up and cannot question the laws that govern their existence, then we might all just as well hand our car keys in now.