Page 3803 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
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securely fastened into a baby capsule or other suitable restraint when they are travelling in a motor vehicle in any suburb in Canberra.
Babies and young children are perhaps the most vulnerable of passengers in vehicles, although I think when one reaches one's eighties and nineties that could be another category of people in trouble. Babies and young children are not old enough to be able to take responsibility for their own safety - except child geniuses - and must accordingly be at the mercy of the people in whose care they are. This legislation will make the driver of a vehicle legally responsible for ensuring passengers under one year of age are securely fastened into a restraint when travelling in the driver's car.
I realise how fascinated everyone is, including the huge number of people from the media in the gallery, as they realise what exciting paragraphs are yet to come. Presently under the Motor Traffic Act, drivers are responsible for passengers aged between one and 14 years in relation to the wearing of seat belts and child restraints. At age 14 years it becomes the individual passenger's responsibility. I am somewhat puzzled by the 14 years; why not 12, 15 or 16?
Some may have liked to have seen this legislation cover all vehicles. Indeed, I would like to see it cover all vehicles. It needs to be recognised, however, that legislation cannot be retrospective and that some vehicles were not constructed to cater for child restraint anchorage points. Accordingly, it covers only those vehicles which have had anchorage points for restraints fitted as part of the original equipment of the vehicle when it was manufactured. However, I would want to quarrel with this. In Singapore they have very useful legislation. After - I forget the time involved, but let us say 10 years for the sake of argument - there is a higher tax placed on second-hand vehicles. So, there is tremendous encouragement in Singapore to get rid of old vehicles. I think we could very usefully bring in such legislation here.
Fortunately the coverage includes the majority of passenger vehicles on our roads, as all cars built since 1976 have these anchorage points fitted. I did not realise that. This legislation is simply an extension of current seat belt and child restraint laws in the Motor Traffic Act. At present, all persons aged one year or more are required to wear seat belts or restraints when travelling in a motor vehicle.
This is the exciting bit: children under one were not previously included because of the need for special restraints to cater for their small size and the lack of restraints available on the market which could be used. Baby capsules - and I do love that term "baby capsules" - and other restraints specially designed for young children
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