Page 3799 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR STEFANIAK (11.31): Mr Speaker - - -
Mrs Grassby: Bill, for God's sake, we are all in favour of it. Let us vote on it, Bill. We are all saying we are agreeing with it.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Grassby.
MR STEFANIAK: Ellnor, I might even say something nice about you to start with. I agree that there should not have been four Bills, just one. I was on that Scrutiny of Bills Committee. I am pleased to support this Bill. The Bill is one more step towards harmonisation with States and Territories on transport related matters.
Ellnor, and everyone else: you will have all experienced occasions when travelling interstate when you have been subjected to laws which differ from those of the ACT with which you are familiar, or hopefully you are familiar. You would have found it disconcerting, to say the least, and probably frustrating, particularly if you were doing the right thing according to the ACT rules.
By agreeing to the passage of this Bill you will be contributing to the push towards national uniformity of rules relating to transport matters. As mentioned by colleagues, the Australian Transport Advisory Council is a body comprising State, Territory and Federal transport Ministers. Of prime concern to them is national uniformity of road laws and rules and vehicle standards.
To this end, the Council has endorsed the Australian Design Rules for motor vehicles so that States and Territories, when testing motor vehicles for registration, can know that at the time of manufacture vehicles conformed to nationally acceptable standards of safety and did not exceed set standards relating to emissions and noise.
The ACT is in a unique position of having a centralised vehicle inspection system. As you all know, all vehicles being registered in the ACT must pass through the motor vehicle registry and be passed fit for registration. Part of the registration process includes inspecting vehicles for compliance with the Australian Design Rules.
This Bill will ensure that the Government, through its vehicle inspectors, has legal protection when refusing registration of a vehicle for non-compliance with the Australian Design Rules. Since 1973 this process has been undertaken on an administrative basis as no Australian Design Rules have been included in the Motor Traffic Act since that time, except for those relating to vehicle emissions and unleaded petrol, which were included separately. Australian Design Rules are designed to provide better and safer vehicles. Improvements in design and manufacturing standards have a beneficial effect on road safety. While it is generally acknowledged that the major cause of road accidents is driver error, a deficiency or failure in a vehicle is sometimes a contributory factor.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .