Statutes Amendment (Personal Mobility Devices) Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of message No.182 from the House of Assembly.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I move:

That the amendments not be insisted on.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: I indicate we will not be insisting on the amendments from the Greens' perspective. Members will recall the discussion that we had during the last sitting period around the e-scooter bill, and in particular the concern that the Greens had, along with some of the other crossbenchers, around the potential for people to be exposed to risk and the fact that there had not been modelling done on an appropriate insurance scheme. We were concerned about some of the risks around that.

I have since had an opportunity to talk to the transport minister about this, and I appreciate him engaging with me on this issue. He has indicated that he is happy to support a review in 12 months' time. That would allow us to get these changes in place now. It then means that in a year's time, if there are significant issues that emerge in terms of insurance and potential risk to individuals, there is an opportunity for the government to address that.

One of the challenges it is my understanding that the government faced in doing the modelling that was requested by the Hon. Ben Hood and the Liberal Party was that it did not know exactly how many individuals we were going to be dealing with, and it was very difficult to get those numbers. The benefit of having a review means that we would be able to actually have some hard evidence in a year's time, potentially, to look at.

On the basis of that undertaking that I have received from the minister, the Greens are happy not to insist on the amendments and to see the bill go through the parliament in an unamended form. I congratulate the government on taking action on this. It is, I think, a good outcome.

The Hon. B.R. HOOD: The opposition will not be insisting on the amendments either. I am glad that members of the crossbench did come along for the ride—pardon the pun—in regard to looking at the nominal defendant scheme, but I appreciate that, as the Hon. Robert Simms has informed the chamber, in discussions the minister has given the crossbench an undertaking that a 12-month review will happen. That is important. I still do, from the opposition's point of view, have concerns around what happens in that 12 months and the people who may come across issues in terms of these PMDs and injuries that might be sustained. It is certainly something that I will be watching very closely.

I would just make this one comment, that in my opinion the claims against the nominal defendant scheme would pale in comparison to how much the government has spent on advertising over the last two years, but I will not go any further than that. SAESK8 have confirmed that they are happy with the approach to treat PMDs the same as bicycles are currently, and that they are happy for a review to occur in 12 months until we have sufficient data to conclude whether public insurance products are necessary.

This is a unity bill for all intents and purposes. The opposition is very keen to see PMDs out in the wild, being able to be utilised by private people here in South Australia. Again, it is a great mode of transport for that first and last mile, as we have spoken about in the second reading speech from a number of the members here. With that, we are happy to see this bill go through. I will not have any further questions in committee, but we will certainly be watching with a very close eye over the next 12 months, before the review.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I would just like to acknowledge the agreement that the amendments will not be insisted upon and to confirm that the department will be putting in place arrangements to monitor the operation of the new framework and separately track road crashes involving personal mobility devices, as alluded to by the Hon. Mr Simms.

Motion carried.