Bills

Motor Vehicles (Number Plates) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (10:31): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Motor Vehicles Act 1959. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (10:31): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I rise to introduce this amendment bill. In so doing, at the commencement I would like to acknowledge that this is an action that has been some time in the making. It is an issue I began taking up in earnest prior to the last election in late 2021, when I wrote to the then minister, Minister Wingard, and I have been following it up ever since, seeking a non-legislative solution, which to date—and I know that it is being worked on assiduously—has not been forthcoming. As a result, I decided, on behalf of the constituents who approached me to fix this issue, to attempt to resolve it legislatively, and thus today we have this amendment bill before us that will seek to do just that.

The issue I have been seeking to address is one with regard to numberplates. I have been approached by a number of people in my electorate who have either inherited or restored old vehicles and, as part of that restoration or heritage value that they seek to maximise, it would be best in their view if they could attach the historically significant numberplate to that vehicle.

Currently, if you want to secure a specific numberplate for a specific vehicle you have to bid on that numberplate when it comes up for auction. The cost can run into thousands and thousands of dollars, and that is not always an achievable solution for everyone to secure. Perhaps a case study might be the best way to explain this situation. In providing one, I would like to point to the example of Mr Donaldson from my electorate.

Mr Donaldson is a farmer from around Kadina and was left in his mother's will an old truck that had been in the family for quite some time—generations in fact, I believe. At his mother's unfortunate passing, he was left the old truck. In trying to register the truck in his name, now that it had been transferred to his ownership, he found they required that the historically significant numberplate be removed from that truck and a new one be provided.

This was quite an extraordinary situation, where he was being asked to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a truck left to him in a will that had been on his farm for its entire life with that same numberplate for the entire duration. It was really quite an extraordinary situation and one that we have been trying to fix for quite some time.

We have approached both the previous and current minister to try to secure that numberplate, to try to get it removed from that auction process and provide it to Mr Donaldson at an achievable cost—not the many thousands of dollars that he has been asked to pay—so that he can continue to have that historically significant numberplate attached to that truck.

That is just one example, and one which I think is perhaps the best example about why this bill should be passed with the support—unanimous support, hopefully—of this parliament. Now that we have heard that example, I would like to outline exactly what this bill seeks to do. It seeks to amend section 47A of the Motor Vehicles Act with the view to ensure owners of historic vehicles that have been held in the family for generations get to keep their numberplate.

Those who wish to enliven this amendment bill would have to demonstrate the historic significance that exists between a plate and a vehicle and that there is merit in keeping that vehicle attached to that plate. They would then be afforded the priority opportunity to retain the numberplate attached to them at the transfer of ownership, rather than be required, as is current practice, to surrender the plates for placement into a public auction for the highest bidder to secure. My amendment bill proposes to insert at section 47A(5), after paragraph (b):

or

(c) if a person satisfies the Registrar that there is historic significance in obtaining the right to be allotted a particular number in respect of a vehicle registered or to be registered in the person's name as an owner.

I take this action, as I have already said, on behalf of constituents who have raised with me concerns about existing requirements that dictate historic plates cannot be retained with vehicle change of ownership and registration, even under circumstances where vehicles and plates have been owned by the same family for generations and have been bequeathed in relatives' wills.

Even if there is evidence of significant historic value that an original specific plate be retained and connected to a specific historic vehicle, the owners of these valuable vehicles must surrender those original plates simply because they are rare and a collector's item and deemed public property and therefore other parties may well be interested in them.

I have already raised the issue of Mr Peter Donaldson from around Kadina, but the other person who came to my office relatively recently is Mr Richard Venning, who has painstakingly restored an old car and really done a wonderful job of putting this beautiful old car together. As a finishing touch for that restoration project, he would like to attach the numberplate it was originally assigned. He has evidence of what that numberplate was. He can prove that the car had this numberplate specifically and, in this case, is willing to pay to attract that numberplate to his car. The problem is that it is stuck in an auction system and he cannot withdraw it from that auction system.

In this case, he would be able to demonstrate that there is a historically significant connection between his car and that numberplate, and the registrar would be able to use his or her discretion to remove it from the auction process and make it available to Mr Venning to purchase and attach to the car, thus completing the restoration project and adding significant value to the heritage of that car, making it all the more attractive for those people who are passionate about car restorations and the like. So there is more than one example in our electorate that would benefit from this law passing.

As I have said, it has been quite some time in seeking out this reform. I did write to the previous minister at the end of 2021, first bringing this to his attention, and I have chased it up on a number of occasions since. I would submit to this parliament that there is the need for speed when it comes to this reform, and I think it would be well worth our time—after having considered it for a week whilst it lay on the table—to pass it with some expediency so that those who have completed or are completing their car restorations or have evidence, like Mr Donaldson, of longstanding historical connection to their truck, can access a numberplate sooner rather than later, attach it to their vehicle and thus complete the heritage value of that car.

There might be some who criticise this proposed amendment bill as providing a lifetime benefit to people who can demonstrate that historical value and depriving others who may well wish to access specific numberplates on the open market in the auction system, but this benefit does not attach to an individual person. It is attached to a specific car and a specific numberplate where evidence exists that there was a previous connection. This is not something that people can manipulate a market with or something that they can hoard for their own personal gain or asset value: this is purely a connection between a numberplate and a car, to add to the heritage and historical value of that car.

I think that it would be well worth doing, even bypassing the market so that we can have that historical value and complete those restoration projects. It would be far better than the profit of the government, in my view. I do not have a great deal more to add, other than that I would like to think this is one of those really simple things that thousands, literally thousands, of people across the state will benefit from. I know there are a significant number of people who have contacted ministers and members with very similar problems that this will provide a solution for.

I know it will be welcomed across the state going forward. Hopefully, that causes the parliament to support it in majority and, hopefully, that causes the parliament to progress it through speedily. I look forward to trying to shepherd it through in the coming sitting weeks. I endorse the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.