Road Traffic (Helmets for Motor Bike Riders) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

Mr PISONI (Unley) (10:44): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Road Traffic Act 1961. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr PISONI (Unley) (10:44): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill comes to the parliament after quite a bit of lobbying and quite a bit of work done by motorcycle riders, the general community, those who are enthusiasts of motorbikes and those who ride motorbikes as their preferred form of transport. I thank the member for Mitchell for the work he has done with those groups prior to my taking up the transport portfolio, but I am very pleased to be able to introduce this bill into the parliament.

I was also pleased to read a media response from a government spokesperson in The Advertiser this week when there was a story about the bill being introduced into parliament, the very same day, I should say, that Tasmania actually made the European motorcycle helmets legal and able to be used, where the government spokesman said that 'SA supported the "harmonisation" of helmet laws for consistency across the country.' We are certainly looking forward to support from the government on this bill also.

The state Liberals and South Australian motorbike riders see this amendment as an extremely positive move for motorcycle safety in South Australia. The Liberal Party has worked with SA motorcyclists in ensuring that their road safety concerns are being addressed and actioned at the parliamentary level where motorbike riders feel that unfortunately some legitimate concerns have been ignored by the current government.

The bill proposes assurances for SA motorcyclists so that we have access to the same safety equipment already used by motorcyclists throughout most of Australia. These ECE 22.05 helmets are now legal in Queensland, Victoria, the ACT, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, and on Wednesday the Tasmanian Government Gazette also published their legal use in Tasmania. They are also standard and legal in more than 50 countries around the world, including our near neighbours New Zealand, the UK and Germany.

The bill ensures that SA motorcyclists will soon have access to a wider range of helmet shapes and sizes and we envisage that this will go a long way to addressing the 20 per cent of riders who have an incorrectly fitted helmet at the time of their fatality.

We also know that the rate of brain injuries, particularly in low-speed accidents, is lower with the ECE helmets, as opposed to the AS 1698 helmets, and, as a net result of this, injury severity could be reduced in some cases. This should also have a positive flow-on effect with regard to the state budget as fewer severe injuries equates to less time in hospital and recovery care, meaning the overall cost of managing motorcycle injuries could reduce.

The bill will also signal to other Australian motorcyclists that SA will soon welcome them in regard to their motorcycle tourism. They will be able to take in the sights and spend their money here without fear of prosecution for wearing an illegal helmet or what is deemed as an unsafe helmet.

At the moment, if you start a road trip in Melbourne and you travel on the Ocean Road and end up at the South Australian border on your way to my colleague's electorate in Mount Gambier, you may very well be pulled up by police, have your helmet inspected, noting it is a European helmet that was legal in Victoria but is no longer legal in South Australia, and consequently it is either the end of a pleasant time being spent in South Australia enjoying the sights and spending money or alternatively you are off to a South Australian motorcycle supplies retailer to purchase a helmet specifically for use only in South Australia.

It is not an acceptable situation in a state where we have a Premier who claims that we want to be the innovative state, the state that is up to date, the state with the transforming economy, when we are still now one of only two states that do not allow the European standard when it comes to motorcycle helmets.

In the case of a rider being involved in an accident, failure to wear an approved helmet may have consequences with regard to insurance cover. According to the crash.org.au website, 84 per cent of AS1698 helmets tested exceed the 1.5 kilogram weight limit, or the point at which research has demonstrated the helmet weight will contribute to basilar skull fracture (BSF) injuries.

Despite numerous Australian and international researchers over the past three decades having found and demonstrated that over 50 per cent of all helmet impacts are to the facial chin bar region, and have made recommendations for the AS1698 standard to include relevant chin bar tests, no such test has ever been implemented in the standard.

In contrast to this, the ECE helmets have chin bar testing to address this high-impact area, and in fact the test schedule is so well developed that it is now used in Formula 1. Under the AS1698 standard, the energy test allows a total maximum force of 300G to be transmitted through the helmet into the rider's skull and brain in order to pass testing. This force equates to AIS6 level injury, which, in simple terms, is a fatality. In essence, our standard allows helmets to pass testing that are capable of transmitting enough force to kill you. However, under the ECE standard, the maximum allowed force is 250G, which equates to an AIS5 injury category, which is survivable.

The motorcycling community in South Australia have been very active in lobbying the government and other members of parliament, and on social media, promoting the argument for change with regard to this improvement in road safety, and sensible alignment with regulation interstate and overseas. Can I just read from a prominent South Australian motorcycle blog hopeful for this sensible change:

…this bill also signals to Australian motorcyclists that SA will soon be back open for business in regards to motorcycle tourism and as such, it will be the regional communities that will gain the most benefits from the bill as currently, if you are an interstate rider [who] uses an ECE helmet, as soon as you cross the border in [South Australia], you are breaking the law by not wearing an approved helmet and in the case of a rider being involved in a accident, failure to wear an approved helmet may have serious consequences in regards to insurance cover.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with our current—and some might say quirky—state Labor government and their moribund, red-tape addicted bureaucracy, approaches by motorbike riders for change have largely fallen on deaf ears, or at least are met with the usual legislative go-slow.

It is only when the Liberal opposition and others promote important issues that Labor ministers (or more often their faceless spokespeople) tell the media, 'We were just about to do that; yes, we are already looking at changing that.' Unfortunately, 14 years is a very long time to be looking at a situation. As I said, this is not a brand new issue; this has been around for quite some time, and the motorcycle community has been lobbying for this very sensible change for quite some time.

I think South Australians are tired of being last in the queue. There was a time when this state used to lead on many issues, such as education and social progress. Even when South Australia was founded, we were a utopia, free of convicts, and sold as the South Australian company to overseas investors. We were very much ahead of the curve when it came to innovation and progress.

Unfortunately, after 14 years of Labor, we have slipped behind. We are now, in many cases, the last to act on change and innovation. What my bill does is bring South Australia part of the way into the general Australian community, particularly with regard to the safety of motorcycle riders.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Bell.