Page 2433 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 August 2015
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To achieve this conviction, the courts currently have to find a driver guilty of gross negligence. There have been cases where death or grievous bodily harm has been the result, but the driver has not shown gross negligence. With the ability to be found guilty of the lesser offence of negligent driving, the courts will be able to find a driver guilty where the actions were not as bad as gross negligence. That makes sense, and we will be supporting that provision.
The provision allowing for certificate evidence about whether an area is a road or road-related area provides support for a more efficient criminal justice system by avoiding the need for the owner or manager of land to attend court in person to provide evidence that the land is or is not used for driving, riding or parking of vehicles. I think that would be a welcome relief, as it is an unnecessary waste of time for third-party members of the public in these cases.
An area of concern that we do have—it will require us to go to the detail stage and we will not be supporting this element—is a ban on the use of bicycles powered by an internal combustion engine on a road or road-related area. This amendment bans the use in public places of bikes modified with motors—that is, internal combustion motors. Currently pushbikes designed to be pedalled cannot be registered if they have an auxiliary motor of more than 200 watts. That is contained in the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000, section 20. This is the same as the current Australian road rules adopted by other states and territories. The Australian road rules define a bicycle as:
bicycle means a vehicle with 2 or more wheels that is built to be propelled by human power through a belt, chain or gears (whether or not it has an auxiliary motor), and:
(a) includes a pedicab, penny-farthing and tricycle; but
(b) does not include a wheelchair, wheeled recreational device, wheeled toy, or any vehicle with an auxiliary motor capable of generating a power output over 200 watts …
That is the current definition. It seems to be an appropriate definition and it limits the power of an engine that can be legally added to a standard pushbike. This is certainly the case perhaps for more elderly people who are still keen to ride a bike but do need some element of auxiliary power, be it from an electric motor or from a small combustion motor.
There are currently small combustion motors, rotary motors, that are available, that comply with the Australian road rules, that comply with the ACT legislation and that have this effect. I have mentioned this to the minister. I have advised him of the website where you can see that these motors are available. These provide assistance in exactly the same way as electric motors do, with the requirement that they do not provide more than 200 watts. So these motors are available.
Currently under the legislation you cannot strap a lawnmower motor to your pushbike and comply with the law. You would not get that registered. It seems, based on the
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