Page 5714 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 November 2010
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Reportable contracts—Agencies reporting reportable contracts for period 1 April to 30 September 2010—Table.
Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Legislation Amendment Bill 2010
Debate resumed from 28 October 2010, on motion by Mr Corbell:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (4.17): At the outset, let me say that the opposition will be supporting this legislation as well as the amendments that have been proposed by both the government and the Greens. I will also be proposing an amendment regarding the requirement to conduct drug awareness courses consistent with alcohol awareness courses, which is one of the government’s proposals. I will also be raising a concern with one aspect of the legislation regarding drivers supervising learners and foreshadow that the opposition may seek to amend this aspect of the legislation at some time in the future.
The bill contains some technical but important amendments to the RDT legislation and some substantive changes to the RBT legislation, as well as some amendments to the RBT provisions. Although the amendments will be discussed further in the detail stage, the political noise that the government has been making about the RDT amendments and the extensive commentary from the scrutiny of bills committee mean that I will discuss these amendments first before moving to the substance of the new RBT provisions.
Mr Speaker, as you are probably aware, Simon Corbell took as much political opportunity as he could from the need to amend the RDT provisions. So I do need to be quite thorough in addressing these issues. It is important to remember, when we speak today on changes to the RDT legislation and the amendments to be made, that random drug testing would not have been introduced in the ACT without the Canberra Liberals believing strongly that this was an essential element in the fight against drug driving. And I acknowledge the support that we had of the Greens in this process.
The government may stand up today and try to overshadow this fight with empty words about unworkable legislation. They may once again try to play politics with road safety. Indeed, in the Canberra Times on 29 October, Mr Corbell pledged to fix what he described at that stage as unworkable roadside drug testing laws passed by the Assembly in July.
It is somewhat ironic, especially given that the very week, indeed the day, that he made those comments, that the Assembly had worked furiously to pass numerous amendments to fix his liquor licensing legislation to make it workable and, in work after lunch done by Mrs Dunne, she was fixing up unworkable regulations again from Mr Corbell. It is also ironic that today we will need to pass numerous amendments to ensure that we can actually make the government’s changes to the law on drink driving workable.
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