Bars like that are probably the reason for this entire issue raising its head over and over.
Shit-for-brains morons that go to stupid lengths to put crap on their vehicle - the car pictured above would probably fail a RWC if an engineer went over it anyway.
I've seen near-new Holden and Ford utes with bars like that and they're the ones that put Kenworth mudflaps across the back, 4 Lightforce 240s across the roof (with more on the bar), 8 radio antennae around the rig and the big "Bundaberg Rum" stickers wherever they can squeeze one in amongst the "Jack Lives Here" and "I'm not a gynecologist but I'll take a look!" stickers.
THEY are the ones that need targeting, and I wholeheartedly agree with the idea. Reasonable installations where the law is followed - fishing rod holders on the underside of the bar (if fitted), driving lights that don't protrude past the front face of the bar, smaller folding antennae etc - there should not be any issue with these.
Something fitted by a person who is mindful of safety and who is fitting it to protect his asset with the safety of others in mind ought NEVER to be questioned. I don't believe this legislation is aimed at the reasonable people/vehicles/configurations.
The unfortunate side-effect of having dickheads in our society is that attempts to curtail the impact these dickheads have on the rest of society will also restrict society in some way. That's how I see what is happening with the bullbar issue right now.
If they amended the legislation to "engineer and RTA approved configurations" I'd support it wholeheartedly. They already have legislation to manage the fitment and configurations, but I doubt it's enforced as widely as it should be. That should change.
For example, there should be a campaign to go after the morons that fit fishing rod holders to the top of the bullbar that makes it easy to rip the guts out of a pedestrian so they can't make a claim against the driver. Take a big stick to these, and anything worse, and suddenly you'll (hopefully) have a 4WD community that has compliant vehicles that won't raise the ire of the rest of the voters.
Winches my ass. Fitted properly, within the bar, how on earth can it be a safety issue anyway? My winch is wholly enclosed in the bar. It does represent an additional 38Kg on the vehicle, but it's just as easy to do that with a liberal dose of friggin' McDonalds too.