THE father of a teenager tragically killed in a car crash on the Calder Highway believes the move to erect crosses as part of a union federal election campaign is disrespectful. On Monday, bendigoweekly.com.au revealed Bendigo Trades Hall had erected a series of pro-union white crosses along the Calder Highway at Big Hill and along Marong Road. The crosses had slogans such as “overtime” and “job security” written on them and were aimed at representing the death of worker’s rights under the federal government’s Workchoices legislation. At least one of the signs was within a few hundred metres of a white memorial cross on the site where 15-year-old Tegan Doherty was killed. Tegan was killed when the car she was driving hit a tree near Big Hill on May 3, 2003, during a high-speed chase. Tegan’s father, Robert, told the Weekly the memorial crosses were a place of remembrance. “It allows people to take a moment to remember and helps them realise cars aren’t toys, they’re very dangerous,” he said. “Trying to get their point across using those tactics is insensitive. “But they’re trying to get a message across somehow.” The man responsible for erecting the memorial crosses also criticised the campaign. Well-known Bendigo businessman Ron Poyser was part of the lobby group Bendigo Plus during the fight to have the Calder Highway duplicated. Mr Poyser liaised with families to erect the memorial crosses along the highway. Most of them have become permanent memorials for the families. Mr Poyser said the community’s Calder campaign was about saving lives, not about making cheap political points. “I think any person or group that uses that platform to make their voice heard is totally offensive and it makes me feel very, very sad that people can stoop to that level,” he said. “Surely there are other means and other places to get a message across without causing that level of concern.” Mr Poyser said the families of those killed on the Calder would be affected by the union’s campaign. “I did meet with a lot of the people who lost family and friends on the Calder Highway,” he said. “I think they would feel offended and they would feel that their monuments had been desecrated.”
