ROAD TRANSPORT REQUIREMENTS

288 Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (23 October 2007).

1. What assurances are there that Departmental enforcement officers will act in accordance with the Minister's undertaking given in the House during the debate on the new requirements in road transport?

2. How will reasonable tolerances and commonsense by these enforcement officers be enforced?

3. What instructions have been given to enforcement officers in relation to issuing on-the-spot fines and is it the aim to issue as many as possible?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy): I provide the following information:

1. Transport Safety Compliance Officers (TSCOs) and South Australia Police Officers (SAPOL) will exercise discretion with the aim to assist those operators who are genuinely attempting to meet their responsibilities under the compliance and enforcement legislation.

TSCOs have recently completed a nationally recognised Certificate IV in Statutory Compliance including Road Transport Compliance, which included training on compliance and enforcement legislation. This particular training module included a full understanding of the intent of the legislation and was also attended by SAPOL, Attorney-General's Department and Safework SA.

2. TSCOs are provided with a higher level of discretion when determining the course of enforcement action, which allows them to caution for offences that fall into the minor and substantive risk category breaches. The Department has received favourable feedback from industry on TSCO's approach to enforcement and use of discretion to date.

3. TSCOs have been instructed to continue applying discretion. TSCO performance is not measured by the number of the on the spot fines issued.