Page 863 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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Madam Deputy Speaker, after an initial phase the ACT Policing’s random roadside drug testing program is now also underway and is operating in conjunction with its breath testing and road safety activities. Since the first driver was randomly tested in May this year as part of a trial, ACT Policing has continually developed its driver drug testing operations. It now has additional testing instruments and a trained team for drug testing which has begun to regularly test drivers alongside random breath testing. This team is drug testing drivers at locations across the ACT both day and night, and the number of drivers being tested is on the increase.
All these factors are working together to improve road safety. The ACT road toll in 2011 was the lowest for 50 years, at six fatalities. However, there were still 8,000 reported crashes on the territory’s roads in that year, with 630 of them involving injury. Of course we are all, I believe, relieved that the 2011 road toll decreased markedly from 2010, but we know that this decrease is no ground for complacency.
The territory’s road safety strategy outlines key goals and objectives for road safety in the territory over the next 10 years. It is supported by the Labor government’s road safety action plan, which provides a list of specific actions over the next three years. Key initiatives include the introduction of point-to-point cameras, which has now commenced, best practice road safety engineering, awareness campaigns targeting priority road safety issues—members may have seen the television advertisements to that extent—and best practice traffic enforcement. Work is also underway to implement compulsory free provisional training for novice motorcycle riders and revising arrangements for the NRMA ACT road safety trust.
The measures in this bill therefore continue the Labor government’s agenda to improve road safety. The bill makes changes for drivers and riders. Safe people and safe behaviours are an essential element of the safe system approach for road safety. One can have well-designed roads and vehicles that comply with the latest safety conditions, but if the driver or the rider is intoxicated, is speeding, fails to drive to the conditions, is fatigued or ignores the road rules, the chances of a crash are increased.
The first set of amendments in this bill, which is perhaps the set that has attracted the most attention, is the set that confers on police and authorised persons the power to direct a person to remove an item that covers the person’s face. This power can be exercised in two contexts: firstly, to establish the person’s identity for a purpose in relation to the road transport legislation; and, secondly, for alcohol or drug testing under the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977.
Madam Deputy Speaker, there are a range of situations in which it is necessary to establish a person’s identity, including by showing their face for the purposes of the road transport law. Applicants will have their identity checked when they undergo the road ready program, when they apply for their learner licence and sit their driver test, and when they transfer their licence from another jurisdiction. Drivers and riders may have their identity checked if they are stopped by police for a suspected traffic offence, when breath tested or if they have been involved in an accident.
The new powers will complement the existing provisions in the Road Transport (General) Act 1999 that allow a police officer or authorised person in the exercise of
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