Page 2443 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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to be the case that this legislation could result in a young courier driver losing a licence where notice in one form or another has not been received from the registrar of the processes that are taking place. We believe that the added time that the Liberal Party proposes will ultimately reduce court congestion and confusion and may also overcome what could be a problem for the members of the TWU particularly, and for other employees for whom a licence is the very basis for sustaining their families.
Another effect of the legislation, I believe, in the short term will be that persons who live interstate will receive a wholly ineffective notice saying that they are not allowed to drive any more in the ACT. That may well mean that Queanbeyan residents who receive such notices and are not able for economic reasons to pay their fines, or the administrative fine that gets automatically levied on them, will be notionally not allowed to drive in the Territory.
There are other insurance and contractual implications of being involved in an accident - whether through your own fault or through the negligence of someone who drives up the back of your vehicle - when you are not licensed to drive, and all of us who have been in law practice know that that is something that some insurance companies, not the credible and reputable ones, fall upon with glee. If your licence happens not to be valid at the time, that starts to get them out of their contractual insurance obligations. As well, and for the many people who have motor vehicles on hire purchase, the fact that a person has lost his or her licence or does not have it at the time some event arises can void those agreements and result in other implications.
Mr Speaker, that is just a superficial run across what I see to be the potential effects of this legislation. The entire Ministry has left the benches. Maybe that is because the Ministers are reeling in shock. I have the feeling that they are not sufficiently involved with the legislation truly to know how it could have an unintended result, in that, in a form, certainly through the fault of a person, there could be an arbitrary withdrawal of the capacity to work and support a family.
I believe this legislation needs to be looked at very carefully. It should go to the scrutiny of Bills committee. We need to get recognition from this Government that this committee has to be staffed and funded immediately and we should not have legislation of this complexity coming before us again without the advantage of second reading speeches, proper legal advice and adequate legal counselling on all its implications - in particular, on Australia's obligations under International Labour Organisation covenants about taking people's capacity to work away from them.
MR MOORE (4.50): I have heard many arguments about lost notices and stolen cars and people who cannot afford to
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