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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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ROAD TRAFFIC (TRAFFIC SPEED ANALYSERS) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 9 June 2011.)

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (10:46): I would like to make a contribution to the Road Traffic (Traffic Speed Analysers) Amendment Bill, particularly with respect to regions of this state. It seems to be that blitzes happen in some of the country areas. I guess that they are random blitzes. It seems to be metropolitan police coming up into the country, and, without being cynical, it would appear that it is a revenue-raising exercise.

Over time we see almost squads of police coming up. Particularly in Chaffey it seems that they stay at the same motel, and they seem to almost book the place out. There are many cars and motorbikes. They come up in force, and suddenly we have speeding devices put right at the beginning of coming out of a 110 km/h zone into 80 km/h zones, or into the 60 km/h zones, coming into these towns. It is not intimidation, but I would say that it is harassment that, right at the change of those speed zones, we have police officers there with guns and with cameras.

My view is that they are revenue raising, and, in doing that, they also have their vehicles out there heavily taxing, usually, local vehicles that are coming into the towns. Over time I have had many calls to my office from people talking about vehicles that have been pulled over for some of the most ridiculous reasons. Along the way we have seen vehicles being defected for paint peeling off the bonnet. We are seeing vehicles that are defected because they have got mud on their numberplates.

The Hon. R.B. Such: Or locusts.

Mr WHETSTONE: Locusts; there is another one. Thank you, member for Fisher. In terms of dealing with some of the real issues out on those country roads, whether it be locusts or insects, it does happen that, travelling over a period of time, they build up on the front of vehicles, and it does make it hard for the police to read those numberplates, but locusts do not hit the back of the car, locusts do not splat into the back of the car.

I guess that there should be some understanding that, when those vehicles are pulled over and if they do have a dirty numberplate, give the driver a caution and tell them to pull into the next service station and tidy up the numberplate or the front of the car.

The Hon. R.B. Such: They could, but they have to have a quota. It puts the police in a bad environment.

Mr WHETSTONE: That is right and, again, that quota system seems to come to the front of these exercises when they come to the regions. What it is doing is straining the relationship—and I think it is a good relationship—between the local communities and the local police. I have met with our senior police officials in the regions and asked, 'What is going on? Why are these exercises being undertaken, straining relationships between local community people and local police?' They do understand, and they have acknowledged that it is something that is happening and something that they would like, in essence, to change.

Those local police are being put under pressure and that relationship is being strained because we have these outsiders—the metropolitan police or the highway police coming from other jurisdictions—coming in and strategically looking at quotas, looking at revenue raising, and it is taking a huge amount of money and funds out of the local economies. It really should be about liaising through media and through their public relations that they are going to be in the region, and people need to be aware.

If it is dealing with dirty numberplates or paint coming off the bonnet, I think that is ridiculous. It is something that does happen, particularly on dirt roads. There has to be some leniency there. We see—

Mr Venning: Common sense.

Mr WHETSTONE: I think the member for Schubert is pretty much on the mark there: there has to be a common-sense approach. There is also the road safety issue. We see these police programs coming up, and they are targeting cars with, as I said, miniscule problems—dirty numberplates, dirty cars, dirty lights, and paint coming off bonnets. They should be out there focusing on road safety, particularly in the regions.

Again, I have stood here in the chamber and talked about how it is the road safety programs that they need to be focusing on and putting a lot of funding towards. It is about the young getting out on those federal highways. In Chaffey, we have the federal highway, the main drag from Adelaide to Sydney. It is a main arterial road, and the young L-platers, the young P-platers, the P1s and the P2s, have to experience the highways, coming from a 50 km/h or 60 km/h zone, coming out of the towns, and into 110 km/h.

At 110 km/h, these young drivers are being asked to deal with what I think is a high-pressure exercise, driving from towns. They are travelling at 100 or 110, as some of the Ls and P-platers have to, and they are dealing with B-double trucks, they are dealing with a multitude of traffic coming at them, and they are dealing with these lanes, with people in the passing lanes moving over to let the traffic pass. In essence, these overtaking lanes are a safety measure, but they are also quite an intimidating exercise.

As I am sure many people here would understand sitting behind a slow vehicle on a single lane of the highway, hitting the passing lanes and, all of a sudden, those vehicles speeding up. They think, 'Oh, we have to get moving on here.' They speed up on the passing lanes and they are doing the speed limit or, if not, sometimes more. Then we get back onto the single lane and they slow back down again. That is something that perhaps the police minister or the Minister for Road Safety need to address. It is about education; it is about educating the young.

I have stood here advocating that we need more road safety programs, and we do see some good initiatives from the minister, but we need more. We need not just these driver training or driver safety programs but we also need some practical experience. We need to have the unannounced situation where, particularly young drivers, appear to be running off roads, running off the shoulders, and it is the correction, coming back onto the roads that is the problem. It is the unannounced problem or situation that these less skilled or new drivers on our highways are experiencing. When that happens, there is an overcorrection and the trees and poles get in the way. There are these new safety barriers, the cable barriers that so many motorcyclists absolutely frown upon. Imagine coming off a motorbike and hitting one of those cables. It would just cut you in half.

Again, I say that we need to focus on road safety more than just getting out there with a revenue-raising exercise and slapping people with on-the-spot fines. I do not condone people who are speeding or breaking the law, but I think there needs to be a common-sense approach to it. The relationship between regional police and their communities is being overshadowed by a poor relations exercise with city police coming up, taking a huge chunk out of the local economy.

I am not addressing the on-the-spot fines for speeding but it is the on-the-spot fines for these minor offences that could be given some leniency and a common-sense approach taken. There are complaints to my office regularly that these people are being unreasonably dealt with and being given an on-the-spot fine. Again, it is breaking down the good relationships that regional police have with the regional communities.

Mr BROCK (Frome) (10:56): I also would like to speak on this bill. As the member for Chaffey has already indicated, I am very concerned about road safety and the loss of lives across all of South Australia. However, regional South Australia seems to be identified once or twice a year when the South Australia Police come from Adelaide and do a blitz in the regional areas.

I will use my location as an example. Some months ago there was a large contingent coming in. Like the member for Chaffey and the member for Fisher, I am concerned about safety and the loss of lives, but these police come in large droves and then set up speed cameras and so forth in locations that are just inside the 110 zone where it drops to 80 or 60 or as the member for Chaffey has indicated going from 60 to 110. The locations where they set up are not dangerous locations, but if they are speeding they need to pay the fine.

The issue is presence. You see this large number of police come in once or twice a year and it is not building good relations for the local communities, as the member for Chaffey has already indicated. Our local police in our regions have a good relationship out there and people respect those local constables, but the issue is that suddenly we have five or 10 police cars come in for a great blitz and people know that they are going to get fined, but then they do not come back again for a long period of time.

I think a better idea would be to have police present all the time. Police just driving around is a deterrent. This is an idea for saving lives and reducing the opportunity for people to speed, not for what appears to be a revenue-raising trip each time. In locations such as schools, a police car there will be a deterrent. It is deterring people from speeding and it is creating public awareness.

The other issue is that the Minister for Road Safety has put out a discussion paper about moving towards zero fatalities. I congratulate the Minister for Road Safety for doing that but that is one idea. The issue of police just coming in droves does not reduce the danger on the roads because those places are set up within the city centres. The fatalities, the damage and the accidents are basically on the open roads.

The police should be out there patrolling those roads even, as I said earlier, if they are just there as a presence. It acts as a reminder because if suddenly I am doing 115 or 120, I will slow down, but if I am speeding and I get picked up by a police car, that is fine.

Safety programs are very, very important. I also believe that our education system, through the schools and especially the secondary schools, should be more open and get them back into the schools. In my role currently as President of the Rotary Club of Port Pirie, we have what we call a Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program.

Mr Whetstone: It is a good program.

Mr BROCK: It is an excellent program. We go out to the high schools. We have a whole day out there. We get the students and we have a trained driver showing the difference in the speeds and the stopping spaces. That does more good than all of a sudden a large contingent of police coming in and giving the fear tactic.

The RYDA program is one of those things that is making those young kids more aware of the dangers of the speed of the high-powered vehicle. I have already indicated to the minister that we have a speed limit of 100 km/h on the roads, but we have vehicles that anybody can get hold of that have the capacity to do over 200 km/h. Just recently, a person was booked for doing in excess of 200 km/h.

Mr Whetstone: 203.

Mr BROCK: The member for Chaffey has just indicated 203. If our road speed limit is 110 km/h, I see no reason why people have to have a car that can do 200 km/h. I certainly have concerns with this and I think that the South Australia Police, no matter where they are, should be there for prevention, not for collecting money.

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