Statutes Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:38): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation and the detailed explanation of clauses inserted into Hansard without my reading them.

Leave granted.

The 2019-20 Budget is focused on the government's priorities of increasing economic growth and jobs and providing better public services for South Australians.

As part of the 2019-20 Budget, the government has announced increased expiation fees for high risk offences, including excessive speed, as well as increased fees under the Mining Act 1971.

The Statutes Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2019 contains amendments to the necessary legislation to implement these fee changes.

Increase in expiation fees for high risk offences

The Bill seeks to amend the Road Traffic Act 1961 to facilitate the increase in expiation fees for speeding offences between 30 km/h and 44 km/h and from 45 km/h and over.

Research indicates that each 5 km/h increase in speed over 60 km/h, doubles the risk of casualty crashes on metropolitan roads, and that each 10 km/h increase in speed doubles the risk of a casualty crash on rural highways. Speed is a significant factor in fatal crashes in South Australia, and reductions in average travel speeds across the road network is the most effective and swift way to reduce road trauma and provide significant and immediate road safety benefits. The detection of speeding offences is one of SAPOL's priorities in its road safety strategy. The increase in speeding fines will serve as a further deterrent to people speeding and is intended to lead to a safer road network.

The Road Traffic Act 1961 will also be amended to allow the penalty for bodies corporate who fail to nominate a driver to be amended through regulations and subsequently be increased.

When a person is detected transgressing the road rules, the loss of demerit points places a driver's licence at risk. This deterrent is one of the measures available that provides consequences for dangerous driving. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people who are detected speeding and/or running a red light in a corporate vehicle are simply paying the corporate fee to avoid losing demerit points thereby avoiding all the personal consequences of dangerous driving. Increasing the corporate fee will provide a deterrent to companies who pay the corporate fee instead of nominating the driver of a vehicle. This is a measure to provide an incentive to companies to nominate the driver of a vehicle which will enable drivers to be held to account for their dangerous driving which places other people's lives in jeopardy and will bring South Australia more in line with other Australian jurisdictions.

Extractive mineral industry—increase fees

The Mining Act 1971 (Mining Act) will be amended to include a fee to recover the cost of assessing and reviewing Programs for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation or Mine Operations Plans, with the new fees to apply to submissions made from 1 January 2020. Development Programs relating to historic mining tenements approved under the Mines and Works Inspection Regulations 2013 will transition to the Mining Act to avoid unintended assessment fees. Development Programs were required on some tenements before the introduction of Programs for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation.

The Bill will also end the current scheme of providing discounts on mining lease rental payments under the Mining Act to tenement holders where they are also the freehold owner of the land under that tenement.

The 2019-20 Budget takes a considered approach to new revenue measures, with these changes intended to increase the deterrents for high risk traffic offences as well as improve cost recovery within the extractive mineral sector, including for work undertaken in the assessment of environmental protection and rehabilitation approvals and mine operation plans.

I commend this Bill to the House.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

This clause is formal.

2—Commencement

Part 2 will commence on 1 January 2020. Part 3 will commence on the day on which the Act is assented to.

3—Amendment provisions

This clause is formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Mining Act 1971

4—Amendment of section 6—Interpretation

This clause inserts a new definition. A body corporate is a related body corporate in relation to a particular entity if it is related to the entity under section 50 of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth.

5—Amendment of section 40—Rental

This clause amends section 40 by changing the meaning of 'relevant interest'. A relevant interest in land over which a mining lease has been granted is an estate of fee simple or native title conferring a right to exclusive possession of the land. Under the section as amended, an estate of fee simple of which a holder of the lease or a related body corporate is a registered proprietor is not a relevant interest.

6—Amendment of section 41E—Rental

This clause amends section 41E by changing the meaning of 'relevant interest'. This amendment corresponds with the amendment made to section 40 by clause 5.

7—Amendment of section 52—Grant of miscellaneous purposes licence

This clause amends section 52 by changing the meaning of 'relevant interest'. This amendment corresponds with the amendment made to sections 40 and 41E by clauses 5 and 6.

8—Amendment of section 70B—Preparation or application of program under this Part

Section 70B as amended by this clause will require the payment of a prescribed fee when a program is submitted for the purposes of the section.

9—Amendment of section 70C—Review of programs

Section 70C as amended by this clause will require the payment of a prescribed fee when a program is submitted for the purposes of the section. If a program under the section is submitted to the Minister after being reviewed at the Minister's direction, and the fee is not paid, the fee is recoverable from the holder of the mining tenement as a debt due to the Crown.

10—Insertion of section 70DA

This clause inserts a new section

70DA—Development programs to be taken to be approved programs

Under the proposed new section, a development program approved under regulation 9 of the Mines and Works Inspection Regulations 2013 and in force immediately before the commencement of the new section is to be taken to be an approved program under Part 10A and is subject to the operation and requirements of that Part.

11—Amendment of section 73G—Mine operations plans

Section 73G as amended by this clause will require the payment of a prescribed fee when a program is submitted to the Director for the purposes of the section.

12—Transitional provision

This transitional provision provides that the amendments made to sections 40, 41E and 52 apply in relation to rent paid under those sections following the commencement of the amendments.

Part 3—Amendment of Road Traffic Act 1961

13—Amendment of section 45A—Excessive speed

This clause amends section 45A(1) by inserting a new penalty provision for the offence of exceeding the speed limit by 45 kilometres an hour or more. The existing penalty is a fine of $1,100 to $1,500 for a first offence and $1,200 to $1,700 for a subsequent offence. The new penalty is a fine of $2,400 to $2,800 for a first offence and $2,500 to $3,000 for a subsequent offence.

14—Amendment of section 79B—Provisions applying where certain offences are detected by photographic detection devices

Under section 79B(2) if a vehicle appears from photographic detection device evidence to have been involved in certain speeding, red light or other offences, the owner of the vehicle is guilty of an offence against section 79B unless certain matters are proven.

This clause replaces the existing maximum penalty that a court can impose for the offence. At present the penalty is $5,000 for a body corporate and $4,000 for a natural person if the vehicle appears to have been involved in both a red light and a speeding offence and $4,000 for a body corporate and $3,000 for a natural person in any other case (unless it is an offence against section 45C(1) for heavy vehicle speeding offences on the South Eastern Freeway in which case the body corporate penalty is $25,000 to $50,000 and the natural person penalty is $5,000). Under the amendment the new penalty applicable in all cases except where the offence is an offence against section 45C(1) is $10,000 for a body corporate and $5,000 for a natural person.

This clause also amends the expiation fees applicable to offences against section 79B. Separate expiation fees are currently applicable under the section depending on whether the offence in which the vehicle appears to have been involved is an offence against section 45C(1) (the South Eastern Freeway heavy vehicle speeding offence), a combined red light and speeding offence, or some other type of offence. In each case at present the expiation fee for a natural person is an amount specified in the regulations for the relevant offence or combination of offences, and for a body corporate is the expiation fee for a natural person together with an additional amount specified in the Act. Under the amendment the additional amount for a body corporate is now referred to as a body corporate additional fee. In the case of an offence against section 45C(1) this body corporate additional fee is specified in the Act and is retained at its existing level of $25,000 (so that the expiation fee where a body corporate is the owner of the vehicle is the expiation fee for a natural person that is fixed in the regulations, together with the $25,000 body corporate additional fee fixed by the Act). In the case of combined red light and speeding offences, or in any other case, the body corporate additional fee that is to be added to the expiation fee for a natural person is no longer specified in the Act but is to be an amount not exceeding $5,000 prescribed by the regulations.

15—Amendment of section 176—Regulations and rules

This clause amends section 176(1a) to increase the maximum amount of any expiation fee that may be prescribed by regulation under the Act (for offences against the Act or the regulations or rules) from $1,250 to $2,500.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.