Driving Offences

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:35): For the second time in two years, special investigations by SA-Best have revealed the growing number of idiot drivers on South Australian roads. I call them idiots because their selfish actions endanger the lives of innocent people. In our latest investigations, statistics uncovered as part of an FOI request found that only one in nine motorists convicted by the courts of driving a vehicle while disqualified actually serves time in prison—one in nine, or about 11 per cent of all motorists convicted by our courts.

These startling statistics reveal that, of the near 11,000 motorists convicted for driving while disqualified over the past five years, up until 31 May of this year, only 1,243 were sent to gaol. In anyone's language, that simply is not good enough, especially when current laws allow our courts to sentence anyone found guilty of driving while disqualified to a maximum of six months in gaol for the first offence and two years' imprisonment for subsequent offending.

Conversely, 4,910, or nearly 45 per cent of motorists convicted of driving while disqualified, received only a fine and/or a good behaviour bond and/or had their vehicles impounded for a period of time. A further 4,248 motorists, or 39 per cent of convicted disqualified motorists, received a suspended sentence while another 870 were sentenced without a conviction being recorded. So the majority of these motorists are getting a slap on the wrist—a clear sign of the failings of our system to meet community expectations. We are talking about the worst of the worst offending in terms of these driving offences.

These statistics are further proof that we are often being too soft on disqualified drivers who deliberately and blatantly ignore our road rules and put innocent lives at risk, which often results in the killing of innocent people. Tragic stories of disqualified drivers killing and/or seriously injuring innocent motorists and other road users come constantly before the courts, and the very same courts give those disqualified drivers slaps on the wrist, according to the information that has been received in this FOI. So it is time, I think, that we start to hand out tougher, more appropriate prison terms for habitual disqualified drivers who create those risks and to maybe include compulsory terms of imprisonment for those repeat offenders.

The statistics reveal that the 2020 to 2021 period is on track to be the worst for disqualified drivers being sent to prison, with only 8.9 per cent of the convicted offenders being imprisoned up until 31 May. The worst offender over the five-year period was a motorist charged with 21 counts of driving while disqualified over two separate court cases. For their first conviction in 2018, they were sentenced to a term of imprisonment of eight months and three weeks, for their second in 2020 they received eight months and three weeks' imprisonment. Another motorist was sentenced for 19 charges of driving while disqualified on four separate occasions and received prison sentences of five months and 18 days, 21 days, two months, and seven months respectively.

While SA-Best welcomes the plans by the state government to increase maximum penalties for motorists who drive while disqualified, these latest stats are further evidence that more needs to be done, that we cannot shy away from imposing the full wrath of our current laws. The increased penalties being proposed by the state government will also fail the grade if the court system continues the trend of failing to take a tough stance against motorists who deliberately and blatantly get behind a vehicle wheel, knowingly disqualified from doing so and creating a menace on our roads.

We need a shift, just like we need a shift for drug drivers, who are also becoming an increasingly dangerous menace on our roads. Another SA-Best investigation late last year led me to introduce a private member's bill, which would see motorists and motorcyclists detected with illicit drugs in their systems being treated the same way as drink drivers.

I am pleased to see that those laws are due to be introduced in this place very shortly. This followed an FOI which exposed 97 per cent of roadside-detected drug drivers also had the follow-up saliva tests confirm a positive for drug use. I think it is high time that this matter be dealt with more appropriately and much more vigorously than it has been dealt with by our parliaments and by our courts to date.