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VEHICLE AND TRAFFIC (TRANSITIONAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) BILL 1999 (No. 110)

Second Reading

Mr LENNON (Franklin - Deputy Premier - 2R) - Mr Deputy Speaker, I move -

That the bill be now read the second time.

Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with pleasure that I present to the House today the second of two bills dealing principally with vehicle registration and driver licensing reforms. This bill is the Vehicle and Traffic (Transitional and Consequential) Bill 1999 and it has two main effects. Firstly, it makes a series of changes to legislation which are consequential upon the commencement of the Vehicle and Traffic Bill 1999, including the repeal of the Motor Vehicles Taxation Act 1981. It also sets out a series of transitional provisions for vehicles and drivers, and related matters.

This bill also continues the process of the staged repeal of the Traffic Act 1925. This commenced with the passage of the public vehicle licensing reforms through Parliament in 1997. By this bill, all of the provisions in the Traffic Act relating to vehicle registration and driver licensing will be repealed.

The majority of the other amendments listed in Schedule 1 of the bill arise out of matters previously dealt with in the Traffic Act and new words and expressions used in the Vehicle and Traffic Bill. Most of these words and expressions have resulted from the national vehicle registration and driver licensing reforms.

The bill now before the House has been prepared on the basis that the Passenger Transport Act 1997 and its related legislation, in particular the consequential amendments to the Traffic Act 1925 contained in that package of public vehicle licensing reforms approved by Parliament in 1997, will be proclaimed with some amendments. This bill will repeal the hire and drive vehicles and inspection provisions inserted in the Traffic Act by those reforms, as these matters are now dealt with in the Vehicle and Traffic Bill.

Mr Deputy Speaker, this bill contains one driver licensing policy issue which is outside the normal ambit of consequential amendments. By way of an amendment to the Traffic Act, it proposes that a traffic infringement notice for a speeding offence issued to the holder of a learner licence will have effect. Currently, the issuing of traffic infringement notices, other than for parking offences under the Traffic Act 1925, are of no effect, resulting in the learner driver not having to pay a fine or having demerit points awarded against them for a speeding offence or other offences dealt with by way of such a notice. In the case of speed camera offences, this has led to some registered owners nominating a learner as the driver of the vehicle in order to avoid the fine or demerit points. This amendment will also encourage learner drivers to drive within their permitted speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour or any lower posted speed limit.
Due to their inexperience, learner drivers will breach the traffic regulations on occasions while learning to drive. However, there is really no excuse for learners to not obey the speed limit. Excessive speed adversely affects driver reaction time and this is especially true of a driver who is inexperienced and dependent in some measure upon tuition. Generally, a traffic infringement notice is not issued to a learner driver under the age of 17 years - in lieu, a caution is given or the matter is referred to the court. In view of this, this proposed amendment will mainly impact on learner drivers aged 17 or over.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend this bill - which supports the Vehicle and Traffic Bill - to the House.

Mr CHEEK (Denison) - Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not going to spend a great deal of time on this bill, as I told your advisers as they were coming into the House. They have briefed me very well on a whole host of matters and I am fairly comfortable with it. I realise that it is complementing the Vehicle and Traffic Bill 1999 and I know the reasons for it.

I think I made the point before but I must say that for somebody who had just been through the FID bill and also the superannuation bill, certainly when you come to the traffic and transport bills they appear very convoluted and certainly very complex. While I can understand some of the reasons for it, and I have asked before why they cannot be put into one bill, I am told that it is very much standard practice to have the transitional arrangements and the consequential amendments put into a separate bill when it goes through but it certainly does involve a lot of legislation which appears at times to be unnecessary.

I do understand the reasons for it and I think that probably the thing that you made a point of highlighting with learner drivers, the fact that there does appear to be an anomaly there where they cannot be issued with a traffic infringement notice for speeding and where they can escape any penalty for that certainly does, in this particular instance, where we are trying to cut down on provisional learner drivers and the amount of accidents they have, appear perfectly sensible to me. I have also run that past other people who have an interest in it and they appear fairly comfortable with it as well. So I believe that it is good legislation and probably anybody who is speeding and going past 80 kilometres an hour, in the case of a learner driver they should maybe fine the person sitting beside them in the car but certainly they should not be able to escape it and I think that is eminently reasonable.

I am not going to spend a great deal of time on this. I know that it is basically terminology certainly with the consequential amendments and the other transitional arrangements. I think it is probably best to ask just a couple of questions in Committee which are not - I do not think it will take a great deal of time. I note that all agencies have signed off and I think that certainly it will be a very thankful time when it is all put through because it has been going on for a long time and it will be good to clean it all up.

So I do not intend to make a huge contribution on this. I think the second reading speech of the minister has summed things up well. As I said, I thank the advisers for briefing me and coming down and putting up with questions which may seem a bit inane at times but certainly they have done their best to address any concerns that I had and that makes a big difference if that is done before you get to the stage of reading the bill and going into Committee.

I will make, as I said, just a couple of points in the Committee stage and the Opposition will support the bill.

Bill read the second time.