Drug and Alcohol Testing

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Road Safety questions about drug driving in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: South Australia has the highest per capita rate of amphetamine use in Australia. In a recent report of the Parliamentary Committee on Occupational Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation, it was noted by employers within the report that drug use was more widespread than alcohol use in the workplace and that those detected with illicit drugs in their system were typically not remorseful for their actions more so than those caught consuming alcohol—or less so is perhaps a better way of putting it.

SAPOL recently released figures relating to a recent drink and drug driving blitz over a weekend period where 11,556 drivers were subjected to alcohol testing over four nights, of which 49 recorded blood-alcohol readings over the prescribed amount, and some 682 drivers were tested for drug driving, returning 15 positive results. That is 0.5 of 1 per cent of drivers tested positive to driving under the influence of alcohol and 2 per cent of drivers tested positive to drug driving, so about one in 50 drug driving and about one in 200 exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol. My questions are:

1. What is being done in terms of effective sentencing, rehabilitation and education to target the issue of drug driving in an aim to eliminate or at least reduce the very high rates in South Australia?

2. Will the government commit extra funding to SAPOL, as per its request, to ensure that drug testing on South Australian roads is more prevalent?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:24): I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. This is an issue to which I have been paying quite close attention since taking on responsibility as both the Minister for Police and the Minister for Road Safety. We have a problem with drug driving in our community. I think it is worthwhile, as a government and as a minister of the government, to be up-front about the challenge we face, as a community, on the issue of drug driving.

I have to say that I do draw enormous confidence from our experience with drink driving, and the substantial change we have seen in the community's attitude towards drink driving, that we can replicate those results in respect of drug driving. We have to acknowledge that this has to be a whole of community response. If we are going to reduce drug driving in the state of South Australia it has to be more than just a policing policy, it has to be more than just a drugs and alcohol policy on behalf the other departments such as Health. It also has to be about members of the community taking responsibility not just for looking at their own actions but also for encouraging good behaviour when it comes to the actions of others.

The honourable member has referred to a number of statistics in regard to a recent SAPOL effort, and I would like to develop on those statistics a little further to give the chamber a sense of the size of the problem we are grappling with. I am advised that in the last financial year—that is, the 2014-15 financial year—the number of detections of drug driving in this state was 4,945. I am also advised that statistics show that 20 per cent of drivers and motorcycle riders killed in fatal crashes in 2015 were reported as having alcohol in their system: in comparison, I am advised that for the same period it was 24 per cent for drug driving. This demonstrates that there is evidence that drug driving is, in some quarters, more prolific than drink driving, which I think most members of the community are surprised about when they first hear it.

In respect to what we want to do, I have already flagged publicly that we are currently going through an exercise of looking at the way legislation operates in respect of drug driving. DPTI, in conjunction with SAPOL, is currently looking at a number of options to potentially improve upon the legislation, but that is a work in progress. I am very keen to see that when we make any adjustments to policy we ensure that we look at it holistically. As I said, it is not just the policing strategy that matters, is not just the health strategy that matters: we need to make sure that we encourage good behaviour, that when people get caught they do not just to go through a period of penalty or suspension or pay a fine but that we utilise that opportunity to engage those people and try to correct their behaviour in regard to drug consumption in this state.

I look forward to working closely on this with the Hon. Mr Hood, and we have had a number of conversations about this already. I also look forward to working with any members who are interested in the issue of addressing drug driving in the state of South Australia.