Dirt Bikes

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:25): I rise today to inform the house of an issue of great concern to residents in my electorate and surrounding areas—in fact many parts of the southern suburbs. I will also highlight the steps I am taking to work with local residents, council and SAPOL to find solutions. The problem is that people, seemingly mostly young males, are riding motorbikes in an unsafe way along roads and reserves.

Concerns have been expressed to me through social media and also through direct reports by constituents and community groups. Residents are, of course, aggravated by the noise and disruption on local roads and reserves but, more importantly, they are deeply worried about the potential for tragedy, as am I. It is no exaggeration to say, based on eyewitness reports made to me, police and the Onkaparinga council, that there is real potential for serious injury or even death as a result of this type of reckless riding.

I have been told of numerous near misses witnessed by local residents, including the case of a little girl who was almost hit by a motorbike rider in a reserve while making her way to kindergarten with her mother. It was frightening for both mother and child, as well as for onlookers. It is not something that we should tolerate as a society. The behaviour is risky and illegal. As a community, we need to work together to identify the small number of people who are making life difficult for many others.

At a community meeting I held last week, on which I will elaborate shortly, SAPOL informed us that many of these young people are riding unlicensed or stolen dirt bikes, making investigation and enforcement difficult. At that meeting, we also heard from the Onkaparinga council that there were 39 reports of dangerous off-road motorcycle riding across the council area last financial year. So far this year, there have been 37 such reports. Not all incidents are reported. Anecdotally, school holidays appear to see a spike in incidents, with hotspots including Happy Valley, Morphett Vale, Woodcroft and Reynella. The local council has also pinpointed the Coast to Vines trail and the old Noarlunga riverbank as trouble spots.

As I mentioned last week, I convened a community meeting at the Woodcroft Morphett Vale community centre. It was well attended, with around 30 local residents turning up to share their experiences and also their ideas about how we can tackle this risk to public safety. The meeting heard from South Coast Crime Prevention Manager, Senior Sergeant Gordon Little. I thank him for his assistance and commitment to assisting the local community with this problem. He informed the meeting that SAPOL is aware of the issues and warned community members not to chase the young riders, as this can present a further safety risk to the riders, the general public and also to the people doing the chasing.

Senior Sergeant Little also urged people to make a report and take down good descriptions so that police can identify the riders. The meeting also heard from the manager of community safety at Onkaparinga council, Ian Hawkins, and I thank Mr Hawkins also for his dedication to assisting local residents. Mr Hawkins informed the meeting that rangers are speaking with riders after reports are made, if they can be located. Rangers issued two warnings and five fines late last year. No fines so far this year have been issued.

Some of the residents came up with ideas. A range of possible solutions were put forward at the meeting as well as online. They include a dedicated local effort to report instances of this behaviour, including a media campaign to encourage locals to make reports to the police and to council; further increasing penalties for these types of incidents, noting that this Labor government has already bumped up penalties during its time in office; installing spike strips and bollards; working with parents of the young riders; establishing a dedicated area where riders can legitimately ride motorbikes; and holding regular meetings to monitor the problem and work together to share information and solutions.

I did comment at the meeting that I would be concerned about the spike strips and bollards, considering that the majority of the people riding motorcycles seem to be young and are probably inexperienced. I would worry for the safety of the riders if that was to happen and someone was to come off their bike as a result of the use of this sort of tactic.

It was clear from the meeting that witnesses to such behaviour should report it to the police or to the council, or to both, and that these reports need to be as detailed as possible. I encouraged locals to do that. I have also made several commitments to local residents. The first was the continuation of frequent street-corner meetings to seek views and update residents on progress in this matter. I will continue to keep in touch also with SAPOL and the council to monitor progress and reports. I am also investigating whether a location can be identified that might be suitable for riders to legitimately ride licensed dirt bikes. I will be doing that in close association with government agencies, SAPOL and the council to identify options that are in the interest of community safety, including the safety of the young riders.

I understand how difficult it can be to maintain such properties, but we would be very interested to hear from people in the private sector, in the community, general members of the public and any organisations that are associated with bike riding to get in touch with us to see if we can partner on this. The ultimate solution, of course, is to work together as a community, and I am committed to bringing all parties together to ensure that we are all kept safe.