Page 1203 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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A wide range of community organisations and other stakeholders have already been consulted about draft guidelines for work and development programs. The feedback has been positive about the concept and broadly supportive of the approach in the draft guidelines. A number of issues raised will be further considered prior to the finalisation of these guidelines.
In addition to payment by instalments and work or development programs, the third option available under the 2012 amendments was the waiver of a person’s penalty. The application process remains the same under this bill, as do the criteria which the administering authority uses to make its decision. If an applicant wants to participate in an approved community work or social development program or seek a waiver, evidence of relevant circumstances must be provided with the application.
Section 21A of the general act contains the new definition of “relevant circumstances”, which relate to disability, illness, addiction, domestic violence, homelessness and anything else prescribed by regulation. Under the 2012 amendments, these were referred to as “special circumstances”. That term has been replaced with “relevant circumstances” because the term “special circumstances” appears elsewhere in the road transport legislation.
An aspect of the bill which was not addressed in 2012 but which is closely aligned with their intent is the amendments to provisions applying automatic disqualification periods where a person drives while their licence is suspended. Currently, under section 32(2) of the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 any person convicted of driving while their licence is suspended is automatically disqualified from holding or obtaining a drivers licence for at least 12 months if the person is a first offender and 24 months for a repeat offence.
There is no flexibility for the court to shorten this mandatory period from 12 or 24 months, and concerns have been raised that the period is not operating as intended, in particular, that it is an excessive sanction in many instances. This is because the same period applies whether the driver was originally suspended for incurring excessive demerit points, defaulting on fines, or pending a fitness-to-drive assessment on competence or medical grounds.
The disqualification period in section 32(2) can be seen as disproportionate when compared with the automatic disqualification period for other driving offences. For example, convictions for offences—including races, burnouts, negligent driving, furious, reckless or dangerous driving or menacing driving—have an automatic disqualification period of three or 12 months under section 63 of the general act. This minimum period is also out of step with corresponding provisions in other jurisdictions. To illustrate, a first offender who is convicted of driving while their licence is suspended for non-payment of a fine faces an automatic disqualification for 12 months in the ACT but only three months in New South Wales.
To address this discrepancy, part 2 of this bill amends section 32 of the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 to modify the minimum disqualification periods for various types of suspensions. The length of the period now takes into
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