In November 2019 Liberal Democrat MP, David Limbrick, formally requested that the Minister for Roads rename Victoria’s ‘Mordialloc Freeway’ to the ‘Mordialloc TISM Freeway’.
It looks like it won’t happen. But the response letter is hilarious.
According to Rolling Stone, Limbrick asked for the change to commemorate TISM’s contribution to the Australian music scene, particularly in Melbourne, over the past 25-years.
“Liverpool had The Beatles, the Rocky Mountains had John Denver, and my electorate ” south east metro ” has TISM,” said Limbrick in his 2019 speech.
He requested the Mordialloc Freeway specifically to be renamed due to its prominence in the band’s TISM’s song The Mordialloc Rd. Duplicator.
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Limbrick even quoted the song in his speech.
“From Lower Springvale to the Frankston Freeway, until you get to that bitumen stain/That runs between two road highways, happy people trapped in its invidious single lane… There ain’t no better roadworks in the nation, than the Mordialloc Road duplication.”
A few months later, the change has unfortunately been rejected in a formal latter signed by Jaala Pulford, the Minister for Roads Minister for Road Safety and the TAC. But Pulford did manage to inject some humour into the situation, citing some of TISM’s own song names as part of the reason.
“TISM were certainly one of a kind and I have some wonderful memories seeing them perform at University,” said Pulford.
“However naming one of our Big Build projects after TISM would be problematic given the mixed messages on road safety in their songs like “˜Greg, The Stop Sign’ and “˜Anarchy Means Crossing When It Says Don’t Walk’.”
Pulford went onto suggest some other classic Aussie favourites that could be taken into consideration for the highway.
“However, my office advises there are other opportunities to recognise great Victorian bands and other Australian acts that have contributed to making Victoria the number one state for music in our nation,” Ms. Pulford adds, before listing other notable songs by Paul Kelly, Courtney Barnett, The Triffids, Skyhooks, and Australian Crawl, amongst others,” said the letter.
“It would be nice to include some [Cold] Chisel but ‘Cheap Wine’ should never be associated with driving… Putting the Bee Gees, ‘Stayin Alive’ on every licence plate in the state would be a much better option.
Keep fighting the good fight, David!