Page 1265 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 16 April 1991
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those vehicles manufactured since April 1985 will be selected for inspection, with all other vehicles exempt. Those vehicles will be randomly selected for inspection as their registrations become due. It certainly will not be, as has been indicated in some areas, a random inspection technique where owners will be required to present themselves at the testing stations on a one-off basis. What will happen is that, as vehicles within that class are due for registration, depending on the ebbs and flows of the testing times required at the station, approximately one in 20 of those vehicles will be required to be put over the pits when applying for re-registration.
The changes take into account statistical evidence which indicates that major wear and tear defects come into play after the sixth year of vehicle life. In addition, some 40 per cent of faults found at the testing stations concern tyres, lights and windscreens which are easily checked without any mechanical expertise. The changes also recognise that the responsibility for the condition of the car rests clearly with the owner and driver for 365 days of a year, and not just on the one day in the year that the car goes through a test station. These changes will, therefore, reduce waiting times at test stations without compromising vehicle safety.
Mr Berry: With the same amount of staff?
MR DUBY: I have heard the question being asked, "With the same amount of staff?". The answer to that, of course, is quite categorically yes. Indeed, I believe that within the testing area we actually have a staff shortage at the moment. As a further measure to reduce waiting times for members of the public, we may be required to put on additional staff.
It should be pointed out, of course, that the vehicle population of the ACT is growing at a standard rate. What this new measure will do is complement the measures that have been in place for some time, where vehicles of the ages of one, three and five years, are exempt from going through the testing station and exempt from going over the pits. The statistics indicate that this should remove some 15,000 vehicles per annum from the current number of vehicles being tested which, I might add, is in the order of some 100,000 vehicles annually. What this should do is bring back into place the testing of, perhaps, 85,000 vehicles.
The computer requires a four-week break to put it on the notices that go out to the public. We have implemented the computer process with effect from 1 June. In the meantime, to further assist Canberra motorists who perhaps are not aware of the current situation, as people roll up at the testing stations staff are going down the lists and identifying those vehicles which fall within the new guidelines for exempt vehicles and they are advising customers that they no longer need to queue and wait; they can simply go and pay their registration at that time.
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