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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3627 ..

MOTOR TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL 1996

The Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill 1996 will amend the Motor Traffic Act 1936 to allow for the introduction of a Competency Based Training and Assessment Scheme for learner car drivers, to be provided by accredited private driving instructors.

We expect that the Competency Based Training and Assessment Scheme will improve road safety by producing a greater level of competence in newly licensed drivers.

Under the current licence testing arrangements, learner drivers are taught practical driving skills by relatives, friends and/or professional driving instructors before undertaking a practical driving test administered by government licence examiners.

When the Competency Based Training and Assessment Scheme is introduced early next year, it will complement the practical driving test. Learner drivers will then have the option of continuous assessment by an accredited private driving instructor instead of having to do the practical driving test.

Private driving instructors will be required to gain accreditation through a government approved training course at their own cost if they wish to be authorised to certify learner drivers for a provisional licence. A comprehensive computer based audit process will monitor the performance of accredited private driving instructors.

Up until now, the ACT has traditionally placed heavy emphasis on vehicle safety as a means of achieving road safety. Fewer resources have been put into driver education and driver behaviour.

We are now shifting that emphasis - putting a greater priority on improving the quality of driver education.

This shift in focus reflects the lessons we are learning from road accident statistics. The information available indicates that over 90 percent of accidents involving fatalities are attributed to driver error, while only 5 to 10 percent are due to vehicle defects.

We also need to put greater emphasis on the driving skills and attitudes of 17 to 24 year old drivers, who account for 40 percent of accidents and have hospitalisation rates up to four times those of older drivers.

There is a strong and growing consensus among State and Territory driver licensing authorities that competency based training and continuous assessment of knowledge and competency are more effective in producing a safe novice driver than is the one-off practical driving test.

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