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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-16 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

VEHICLE IMMOBILISERS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:09): I take this opportunity to further explain my question to the Minister for Road Safety. On Tuesday this week, The Advertiser printed a story headlined, 'Men arrested after car chase leads to a trail of destruction'. The story begins by saying that it was a case of two alleged car thieves who did not get away.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: They were on parole.

Mr WILLIAMS: They were on parole, too; the Attorney-General is right. The alleged perpetrators of this crime were on parole. The story goes on to tell of the destruction created by, I believe, two perpetrators in a stolen high performance car. The reality is that the high performance car was fitted with satellite technology which allowed Holden (it was a Holden motor car) to immobilise the car.

The owner of the car happens to be a constituent of mine, who I have been talking to this day. He said that when he reported the stolen vehicle to the police he also rang Holden Assist, and because the car was four years old and he had allowed the mobile assist technology to lapse Holden Assist told him that if he paid $350 they could re-establish the connection, which they did, and a short while after located the vehicle and told the police where the vehicle was.

I am informed, and my constituent was informed, both by Holden Assist and the police, that Holden Assist asked the police if they wanted the vehicle immobilised. It appears that the police said, 'No, we don't want it immobilised. We're sending around an unmarked car and we want to catch the culprits red-handed.'

When they arrived at the address the car was not there. They contacted Holden Assist who told them that the vehicle was now just around the corner. When they approached the vehicle it headed off and a high-speed chase ensued.

The police could have had that vehicle immobilised at any stage. I understand that it could have been immobilised when it was first found, and the vehicle would never have moved from where it was detected, or they could have immobilised the vehicle at any stage during the high speed chase, but they chose not to.

According to the story in The Advertiser, the vehicle was subsequently involved in a collision with a car on Findon Road (that was after going through a red light), subsequent to that it ran into a light, I think, at the intersection of Findon and Port roads, collided with another car, kept driving and was abandoned a short while after. The perpetrators were captured some four or five minutes after abandoning the car.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Alleged.

Mr WILLIAMS: The alleged perpetrators; the Attorney-General is right. The government is at pains, on a daily basis, to tell us how serious it is about reducing road trauma, yet here we have two perpetrators who, again, it is alleged that this car was involved in at least two robberies the night before, or two offences—I believe they were robberies.

The government had the opportunity to immobilise this car and make sure that no further damage or trauma would occur on our roads, yet it took the trouble to say to Holden Assist, 'Thanks, but no thanks. Let's let them get in the car and drive off.' Even when they became involved in a high speed chase they did not take the opportunity to have the car immobilised. I understand that there is no safety issue with immobilising these cars whilst they are moving; the car will slowly come to rest and the driver can quite safely pull over.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: You're blaming the police.

Mr WILLIAMS: I am questioning your seriousness, Attorney. My constituent is somewhat disturbed and distressed. Not only has he lost a very valuable car—his insurance company has come to the party—but, on further inquiries, both to Holden Assist and to the police, there seems to be some sort of conspiracy to now cover up. People that he was able to speak to a few days ago are now refusing to speak to him, and the story that is coming out from the police seems to be changing on a daily basis.

If the government is serious about its rhetoric then it should get some protocols organised on how to use the technology that is available, rather than bringing more and more draconian laws into this place on a daily basis.

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