Page 3227 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 1994
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MR LAMONT: Not only does Mrs Carnell want to answer her own questions; she also apparently wants to answer everybody else's.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR LAMONT: Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. There are, I think, acknowledged two main reasons for road fatalities and road trauma in the whole of the country, not just here in the ACT. That includes the effect upon pedestrian and other road user traffic. Those two major issues are alcohol and attitude, and it is the second of those that I think Ms Szuty's question goes to.
The essential part of the reform process in driver licensing in the ACT that is being proposed will be to ensure that, through a competency based driver training program, we affect the attitude of new and learner drivers, and in particular that that attitude be changed within our young drivers. It is simply not good enough to suggest that the fact that a person is able to pass a written test or a verbal test about when to turn left, when to put your foot on the brake, when to indicate, when to give way and so on, is a sufficiently comprehensive requirement, given that one of the major road trauma causes is the attitude of the driver, rather than their technical knowledge of a 14-page handbook. It is proposed that, in the learn to drive program that has been developed, the attitude of that driver is the major issue that is concentrated on - attitude, not only for their own protection and the protection of persons travelling in a vehicle with them but also for the protection of other road users, whether those road users are other motor vehicle drivers, motorcycle drivers, cycle riders or pedestrians. I believe that, in concentrating on that issue, we can contribute significantly to the reduction in road accidents and road trauma in this country.
It was very interesting yesterday - I think a number of members of the Assembly will have heard - that a representative of the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority, at a function held here in the Assembly, addressed this question in micro-economic reform terms. What we are talking about in road trauma and road accident costs to us as a community is that, if we are able to have a 20 per cent effect nationally on that issue, this country saves $2 billion. I think that is the context within which this whole reform agenda needs to be placed. In particular, Ms Szuty, the question of the attitude of drivers to other road users, pedestrians and cyclists needs also to be borne in mind in that context. Not only is there personal trauma, not only is there great suffering by the individual who may be involved in that accident, but there is indeed a great cost imposed upon our community.
So, the basis of this new system will be to change the attitude of our drivers. I am certainly hopeful that, in cooperation with the industry, the transport industry in its wider context, the learn to drive industry, the professional drivers and my department, we also will be able to look at systems that will continually apprise drivers - not just as they get their licence but in the longer term, and as they are each continually apprised - about their competence as drivers. So, it is not something that happens just in the lead-up to achieving your licence; it is something that we consider reviewing over time.
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