Page 726 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 5 April 2022
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bicycle or other non-powered vehicle if the officer suspects the person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This power will be used as an early intervention tool, and infringements will be issued for those who do not follow a direction from police. The bill being debated today builds on this enforcement framework by introducing a new offence where a person drives or rides a vehicle, or animal, on a road-related area while they are under the influence of alcohol or a drug to such an extent that they do not have proper control.
Currently, it is an offence to use one of these devices under the influence of alcohol or drugs on a road but not on road-related areas like footpaths, shared paths, car parks and nature strips. That is a gap that we need to close, as more people are using personal mobility devices on road-related areas. A maximum court-imposed penalty of up to 20 penalty units will apply for this new offence, representing an amount of $3,200. Of course, because this is a court-imposed penalty, a magistrate may choose to impose a lower fine and financial penalty at their discretion.
To create an appropriate hierarchy to address these unsafe behaviours, the new offence is for those serious instances where early intervention could not occur and a person is under the influence to an extent that they have lost control of their device. These matters should be heard in court. We anticipate that this offence will primarily be used in circumstances where an accident has occurred and the rider themselves or other road users have been injured.
I would like to reassure the Assembly that these amendments will be supported with education to our community. This will help to ensure that road users are aware of where these new offences apply and to whom they apply. I thank the scrutiny committee for raising this important consideration which will ensure that the new offences achieve the desired effect.
The bill also adjusts the penalty for riding a personal mobility device, bicycle or other non-powered vehicle under the influence of alcohol or a drug on a road, to align with similar offences for driving a motor vehicle under the influence. This simply addresses a previous discrepancy in penalties that the government has identified in the course of designing these other reforms.
As I have noted earlier, these alcohol and drug penalties are court imposed to reflect the serious harm that riding or driving while under the influence can cause. The courts will have the discretion to consider all the facts to determine whether the person was under the influence to the extent that they were incapable of having proper control and to determine an appropriate penalty. There is some established case law in that area already.
We want to send a clear message that drink-riding is dangerous and vehicles like e-scooters are not a good option if you have been drinking. These new penalties will deter this kind of behaviour, helping to create a safer environment on and around our roads and responding directly to the community’s concerns about drink-riding.
I will now move, briefly, to the other elements of the bill, which are primarily technical amendments to keep our road transport frameworks up to date. The first provides clarification of the legislative provisions allowing a vehicle registered in
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