Drug Driving

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hood.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hood has the floor.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police a question about drug driving, particularly in school areas.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: SAPOL's recently released figures, which revealed that more than 50 motorists, including parents and carers with child-aged passengers in their cars, have been caught driving with drugs or excessive alcohol in their system near schools. It was revealed that drug driving overwhelmingly accounted for the majority of cases with one in 18 drivers tested returning a positive result to methamphetamine or cannabis. In contrast, only one in 651 tested for alcohol returned a blood alcohol reading above the limit. My questions for the minister are:

1. How often does SAPOL conduct operations to target drug driving, particularly in school areas?

2. Was the operation recently conducted throughout September a response to the rise in reports of dangerous driving in school zones and/or statistics which show increased drug driving throughout the state or for another reason?

3. Can the minister provide any further reports or statistics or reveal any further SAPOL initiatives in relation to drug driving, whether near schools or not?

4. Will the government support an increase in penalties for drug driving in school zones and drug driving in general in addition to what currently exists?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:50): I thank the Hon. Mr Hood for his questions. I will start with the first part of his questions regarding SAPOL's activities. I cannot speak with any authority on some of the reasons behind SAPOL's specific operations that are conducted from time to time in this area. What I will say, though, is that I share Mr Hood's concern and, indeed, that of the community at large, at the prospect of people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in any environment, let alone in an area where children are present, crossing roads and getting picked up by mums and dads, and the like.

It is extremely concerning that on more than one occasion now, SAPOL has conducted operations testing for drug driving in and around school zones and have picked up people driving under the influence of methamphetamine or cannabis in those particular areas. It is just as concerning that often the perpetrators of these crimes are indeed parents themselves dropping their own children off to school, which represents an even more substantial risk in terms of, obviously, having children in the actual car where a person is under the influence.

Approximately 24 per cent of road deaths that occurred last year—24 per cent of those people who died on the roads last year had a form of drug in their system, whether that be methamphetamine or cannabis. That is an astonishing statistic that almost a quarter of all people who died on our roads last year had some form of drug in their system. I think that alarming number makes it clear that there are lots of people who are not getting the message and, as a direct consequence of their behaviour, are losing their own lives, and while they are at it, putting the lives of other road users, who are utterly innocent, at risk.

I have said on one more occasion, and this goes to the second part of Mr Hood's question, that I do think there is reason to review the penalty regime that is in place in respect to drug driving laws. I can now say that this is something that I suspect the cabinet will consider in due course, and we are always looking at ways in which we can improve our legislative framework in and around driving penalties to see if we can make sure that the South Australian public are well aware that it is unsatisfactory, indeed unacceptable, for people to be driving on our roads under the influence in such a way that not only, as I said, jeopardises their own lives, but also the lives of others, and that is particularly true in and around environments where children are regularly using roads.

We have lower speed limits in place around school zones not just for appearances, but because it dramatically reduces the risk of a child who does inadvertently escape the supervision of their parent and bolts out and crosses the road, because speed contributes to risk. No differently would drugs and alcohol in such an environment heighten the risk of a child getting hurt in the event that they were to, like I said, run across the road as a result of temporarily leaving the supervision of a parent or a teacher. So, this is of concern, it is an issue that is being looked at, and I look forward to, in due course, being able to report back to this place and the Hon. Mr Hood the outcome of that ongoing piece of work. I might add that I hope that that will be done before the end of the year.