Page 490 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 23 March 2022
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approach which mitigates future risk, we can continue to ensure the safety of the Canberra community and reduce everyone’s risk of becoming a victim of gun-related incidents. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Road Transport Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
Debate resumed from 5 August 2021, on motion by Mr Steel:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (11.30): The Canberra Liberals, along with all other parties in this chamber, support this bill. I think it is safe to say that we are all committed to making our roads safer for all road users. Regardless of whether the amendments proposed to this bill pass, we support the bill because road safety is one of those things that are much more important than politics. That is something that I certainly made clear to Mr Steel in our discussions about this bill at the time that it was tabled.
All of us in this place are road users. All of us are, sometimes, vulnerable road users. Everyone in the ACT is a road user. It does not matter if we are only on a footpath for one minute of a day or if we work all day on the roads; safer roads make life better for all of us. While updating offences for negligent driving and introducing new offences involving the use of personal mobility devices, this bill, at the end of the day, is not a major bill. Nor is it a bill seeking to punish those who use scooters whilst intoxicated. It is, quite simply, a bill to keep us all safe.
The changes updating the offences of negligent driving and negligent driving occasioning harm will protect road users in a measured and considered way. The changes to driving disqualification time frames and other driving offences will ensure that those who should not be on the roads are not on the roads. The changes around personal mobility devices, most commonly e-scooters, will ensure that our community is kept safe and that when someone should walk or get a taxi home at the end of the night, they will; they will not try to take a scooter home. Much of the benefit of this bill is not derived from the new offences that it creates, nor those updates; it comes from the opportunity that it presents for the government and the opposition—for all of us—to highlight the importance of road safety and of protecting our vulnerable road users. It is an opportunity to promote a safer environment.
I note that my Greens colleague Ms Clay had a very good crack at a similar bill, at least in some areas, which was looked into by the PTCS committee. At the end of the day, the committee recommended that we not proceed with that bill; nevertheless, its very existence has led to a deeper discussion in this space, I think. It has led to a lot more information coming forward, and I believe that it has certainly led to the
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