Page 589 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 May 1992
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TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
Detail Stage
Clause 6
Debate resumed.
MR HUMPHRIES (9.31): The Liberal Party, as it indicated before, will be opposing this clause. I think that we can accept that there is some force behind the argument that the Attorney-General has put, that some of the offences provided for in the Traffic Act do require stiffer penalties than presently are provided for. I think we would accept that. There are certainly some fairly serious provisions in there which need to be considered.
An increase of 500 per cent is a rather stiffer penalty than the Liberal Party generally supports; nonetheless, there might be circumstances in which we would support such an amendment. We will not support the kind of blanket amendment which has been talked about here, however. It is simply too broad. It is simply a sloppy way of dealing with a whole series of very sensitive issues to which individual thought should be given.
I am quite happy to indicate that we will be rejecting that clause of the Bill at this time. If the Minister comes back at another time with more sophisticated amendments dealing with each of these sections, instead of this ham-fisted style, as Mr Moore puts it, I am sure that they will be supported by this party. We do believe that there are a number of quite minor and probably irrelevant provisions in the Act which ought not to attract penalties of that size, and for that reason we think that a little more sophistication is called for.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (9.33): Madam Speaker, it would seem that this measure is doomed to failure. The Liberal Party, despite their regular calls for us to get tough on virtually every offence under the sun, when given their first opportunity retreat at breakneck speed, no doubt influenced by Mr Moore's very entertaining speech - entertaining and amusing, but somewhat at odds with the Act.
The offences he was referring to relate to vehicles. The Act uses the phrase "vehicle or motor vehicle". "Motor vehicle", in the definitions section of the head Act, the Traffic Act, has the same definition as in the Motor Traffic Act. It essentially means motor vehicles. "Vehicle" is defined to mean a bicycle or a carriage drawn by an animal, which I think would exclude the wheelbarrow that Mr Moore - - -
Mr Moore: I am an animal.
MR CONNOLLY: Indeed, it would, because "animal" is defined to mean any horse, cattle or sheep generally, apart from, interestingly enough, the provision requiring a person to stop when a vehicle or animal that they have been riding is involved in an accident. When you are riding an animal which is involved in an
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