Page 5202 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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MOTOR TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1991
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.06): I present the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1991. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill contains amendments to the Motor Traffic Act 1936 to increase the penalties in relation to traffic infringement notices. These offences are often called on-the-spot fines or TINs. The ACT Motor Traffic Act was introduced in 1936 and relates to the control of motor vehicles and the regulation of motor traffic. Traffic infringement notices were introduced in 1983 and are issued by the police for less serious offences such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt, not stopping at a give-way sign, not wearing a motorcycle helmet, and so on.
Fines for speeding offences in the ACT are too low. There are far too many people in the ACT who speed habitually, knowing that the highest fine they can receive at present is $130. Approximately 75 per cent of all traffic infringement notices are issued for speeding offences.
This Bill does two things. The first is to change the way in which penalty levels for all traffic infringement notices are amended. The ACT is out of step with New South Wales and Victoria in requiring enactment to amend traffic infringement penalty levels. Both these States set levels by means of regulations. The Bill allows for changes to ACT penalty levels to be made by regulation. This will enable changes to be made quickly and with fewer resources, but of course the changes will always be disallowable and referable to this Assembly.
In addition, the regulations will create a new category of offence, namely, exceeding the speed limit by 45 kilometres per hour or more. This will result in four categories of speeding offences instead of the three currently. The introduction of this fourth category of offence is in line with a recommendation made by the Australian Transport Advisory Council and brings the ACT into line with interstate jurisdictions.
Penalties for offenders in the 0 to less than 15 kilometres per hour and 15 kilometres per hour to less than 30 kilometres per hour categories will be brought into line with New South Wales. Thereafter, the penalty for exceeding the speed limit by 30 to less than 45 kilometres per hour doubles the penalty for 15 to less than 30 kilometres per hour and the penalty for exceeding the speed limit by 45 kilometres per hour or more doubles the penalty for 30 to less than 45 kilometres per hour category. The penalties for the two highest categories are still, respectively, $13 and $26 lower than their New South Wales equivalents, which are $263 and $526.
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