Hobson’s choice for cabbies – if their passengers don’t mug them, Steven Joyce will

Mugger be buggered...I'm here to collect your fine.

Cabbies have good cause to be pissed off with meddling law-makers.

Too often they are mugged by their passengers.

But all is not lost. Those who are really bothered by the prospect of being attacked and robbed could do something about it and install security cameras

Nanny State prefers compulsion.

Stuff reports today on a raft of measures developed by the New Zealand Transport Agency including – disgracefully – hefty penalties for non-compliance.

The agency has done this after the Cabinet agreed to make cameras in taxis compulsory in a bid to improve driver safety after a spate of attacks.

Smile, you’re on cabbie camera – but installing these gadgets should not be a matter of compulsion

Alf can’t whip up much interest in a debate about the safety of cab drivers in his Eketahuna North electorate. Indifference perhaps stems from the dearth of taxis and assaults.

But Alf personally is fascinated by the subject, because it suggests to him that most cab drivers are remarkably unconcerned about their personal welfare and safety, despite the hullabaloo that typically follows the murder or beating of one of their colleagues.

If they were concerned, the Taxi Federation would not have to press the Government to introduce mandatory safety measures such as cameras.

Cabbies would have done it themselves.