Page 5815 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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That was done, I am quite pleased to say, by the former Minister for Urban Services, Mr Duby, after a fair bit of urging by me. Appropriate penalties in relation to traffic offences are important when any State or Territory is trying to address road accidents and abuse of the rules of the road. This is a very serious matter because more people die on Australian roads each year than die from almost anything else. Smoking is a worse cause of death in Australia than our roads. During the Vietnam war we lost about 500 people all up. More people than that are killed on Australian roads every year. That is indicative of just how serious road safety is. This Bill is one of the measures addressing it.
We have been lagging behind the States very badly. When one travels out of the Territory, one sees that the ACT is regarded as a joke when it comes to penalties imposed by courts for a large number of matters. This Bill is at least an attempt to redress the balance. This is the second Bill initiated by this Assembly which will increase traffic infringement penalties. As far as it goes, I commend the Minister for Urban Services for it.
I am pleased to see a couple of differences between this Bill and the last one. I note that, in future, regulations can be promulgated to increase penalties. Clause 4 deals with the general offences under section 192. Some people, as is their right, do not pay traffic fines. They want to defend the matter and have their day in court. Some people merely forget to pay fines and are summonsed to court and plead guilty. It is appropriate that the court, should it wish to do so, then be able to impose a penalty which is in excess of that set out in the traffic infringement notice.
Section 192 of the principal Act will be amended by omitting the maximum fine of $500, which is really quite low when one considers some of the fairly horrendous driving that can be subject to traffic infringement notices, and substituting $2,000, which is certainly a far more appropriate penalty. That is a good measure.
I note that the Attorney and Minister for Urban Services, in his speech, indicated that now there will be four categories of speeding. That brings us into line with New South Wales, although two of our penalties will be $13 and $26 lower than their fines for equivalent speeding levels. New South Wales have some rather quaint fines - $263 and a maximum of $526 - as a result of their penalty unit system. Effectively, we have swung into line with New South Wales.
I note, also with approval, that the maximum penalty one can get for driving at an excessive speed, which is more than 45 kilometres per hour over the limit, is $500. That is the same as the penalty for someone driving with a PCA reading of between .05 and .08. I certainly think that is quite appropriate, because if you are going more than 45 kilometres per hour over the speed limit your risk of having an accident is equal to that of someone driving with a .07 blood alcohol level, for example. That new fine is
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