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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-24 Daily Xml
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ROAD TRAFFIC (EMERGENCY VEHICLES) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 15 September 2011.)

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (10:57): I am certainly pleased to rise in the house to speak to this piece of legislation the member for Stuart has brought to the parliament on behalf of the state Liberal opposition. This has been a commitment of the state Liberal Party for some time. It was in our policy documents that we took to the last election and I understand it was actually in the Labor Party's policy platform at the last election.

It has taken the Liberal opposition—the state Liberal Party—to bring this matter to parliament, to see an improvement in the safety of our emergency services volunteers when they go out morning, noon and night, to look to protect our community. It has taken the state Liberal Party to bring this matter to parliament, to see a positive result.

The Hon. J.M. Rankine: You are not pointing at me, are you?

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: I am making a point. That is why the state Liberals—

Mr Venning interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert, I think you are misbehaving.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: —have announced this and introduced the bill.

The SPEAKER: I'm sorry; I can't hear what is going on. Can we have some order in the chamber please? Member for Kavel.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY: That is why we have brought the matter to the parliament—to change the legislation to reduce the speed limit of vehicles passing emergency services vehicles, when they are out in the community undertaking their activity, from 40 km/h to 25 km/h.

Our state's 17,000 emergency services volunteers, together with the paid staff, are our everyday heroes in South Australia. With a constant the risk of fires, road accidents, natural disasters and other emergencies, we all rely on our emergency services for protection. As I said, the state Liberals recognise that, the community recognises that, so we need to support our emergency services personnel. Our emergency services are part of what holds our community together and they deserve our support.

Emergency services, we all know, are more than just vehicles, brigades and stations. The foundation of any emergency service is its people, particularly the volunteers. The volunteer service provided by the CFS and SES is invaluable, as is that of the MFS and other emergency service agencies, and should not be taken for granted.

However, as I said at the beginning of my contribution, it has taken the state Liberal opposition, the state Liberal Party, to bring this matter to the parliament to see a positive outcome. We have taken the lead on this issue. The state Liberals have taken the lead on this issue, and that is why we are looking to make the necessary changes to the law. The government has promised, but unfortunately it has not delivered at the moment.

I understand that all our emergency service agencies support it—the MFS, the CFS, the SES, the police association, the ambulance association, and so on—so I do not want to hold up the house unnecessarily. It is certainly supported by the CFS Volunteers Association. It is my understanding that they are quite frustrated with the government not bringing this matter to the fore and having it resolved, but I do not want to hold up the house unnecessarily because I know we have some other matters to deal with in relation to this.

The government is proposing to establish a select committee, and we understand that it has the numbers in the house to do that. I understand that the minister will look to carry us through that process after the conclusion of the second reading debate. Obviously, this is a very important measure to support our emergency services volunteers, and we look forward to the swift carriage of the legislative process to see this put in place to protect all our emergency services personnel.

Mr BROCK (Frome) (11:02): I also rise to support this private member's bill introduced by the member for Stuart (Mr Dan van Holst Pellekaan), and I congratulate the member on bringing it up. This issue was identified by myself, probably back in July, and I spoke to the previous minister and brought to his attention the 2010 commitment from the Labor Party to bring that to fruition.

I take on board the member for Kavel's comment that the Liberal Party has brought it to the house, and it is a lesson that I have learnt that, if we feel very passionate about an issue, then bring about a change to the bill itself. We were trying to get it through the regulations and, unfortunately, we could not get through that way. There was a bit of a time bomb.

As the members for Kavel and Stuart have indicated, members of the emergency services out there deserve to have some protection, and I am very hopeful that this bill will get speedy passage through the house because, in my case, I have gone through it with all the relevant emergency services, including the CFS, the SES and the MFS and also the ambulance services, so everybody is in agreement with this.

Just recently, one of my volunteers came into my office. He was on leave and he went through Port Augusta, and as he went past the Port Augusta Gaol there were signs out there at 25 ks an hour because the inmates were doing some cultivating on the side of the road.

Mr Pengilly: Escaping.

Mr BROCK: They were not escaping.

An honourable member: What were they cultivating?

Mr BROCK: They were managing the grass there. His statement was that he risked his life to pick up people who are being injured and yet he has to have people going past him at 40 ks an hour currently. Let me also say that people need to use some common sense. I do not think our drivers in South Australia really understand what we should be doing. If you are on a road and you see an emergency vehicle—whether it be a police vehicle or whoever it is—on the side of the road doing their duty, you should slow down automatically even if there is no legislation in place. Common sense prevails. We should be very, very sincere about that and start to take it into account. This is why we need to reduce the speed limit to 100 km/h on some of the country roads.

I believe that driver education should go back to schools and that information made available. It should be part of the tuition of secondary schools so that all students are aware of what the regulations are, what the speeds are and how it is just common sense. Common sense is something that everybody should have. You see it all the time, when people reverse out of a parking space on a two-lane road, they will not go into the other lane on the other side if it is vacant. I know that there are other things that need to be done today, but I certainly 100 per cent endorse this and hope it gets speedy passage and gets implemented very quickly.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:06): In the very first meeting that I had as Minister for Emergency Services with the Country Fire Service Volunteer Association they raised this particular issue. As other speakers have said, they are very passionate about ensuring that the speed limit past emergency vehicles is reduced from 40 km/h down to 25 km/h. They see it as an important safety measure for their volunteers. It is about sending out, in their view, a very strong message to motorists who they do not believe, in large part, obey the 40 kilometre speed limit currently. It is sending a message that, when you passing an emergency vehicle, you do need to slow down.

In fact, it was Labor Party policy at the 2010 election and, as the member for Kavel claimed, a part of the Liberal Party policy as well. I have to say that it is just a tiny bit cute that the election was in 2010 and here we are in 2011 and he is in here beating his chest. We know that there are some leadership tensions currently within the Liberal Party and, certainly, the reshuffle is causing anxiety for some people.

However, I want to put on the record my strong support for the member for Kavel. I think he has been a very good shadow minister, and I always enjoy working with him. I have always found him, on a personal level, to be a very reasonable person to deal with. I just hope he continues to have the support of his party when they have a reshuffle. He comes into the house and does a bit of prancing around and beating of his chest, but underneath it all he is really quite a good fellow. We recognise that—

Mr Pengilly: He was a bank manager, and they are terrible people.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: Don't reflect badly on the member for Kavel. As I said, he is always a very decent person to deal with and I have always enjoyed, on a range of different portfolios, working with the member for Kavel. These people, on a daily basis, put their lives at risk when they attend emergencies, most particularly road accidents—and we have many of those not just in rural areas but on the fringes of the city as well. I know that for the Salisbury CFS, for example, the largest number of callouts is for road accidents, so it is important that their selfless actions are recognised and that we have the best protections in place to enable them to get on and do the work they do in providing really important services for our community.

In considering our position, the information that I have is ever so slightly different to what the opposition has proposed and that is, in fact, there is one agency that does have some concerns about this particular legislation and that is the South Australia Police. They have some concerns about how this might be enforced and the implications on some of the main highways where there is a speed limit of 110 km/h and passing traffic is required to reduce to 25 km/h. This government thinks that we need to consider very carefully both sides of this argument and that the concerns that have been raised warrant careful examination.

Rather than passing legislation, we looked at using regulation to do this, and that would enable Country Fire Service brigades to erect the 25 km/h signs themselves. They could carry them in their trucks and when they thought it appropriate they could erect those signs. But the clear message I received from the volunteer association was they did not want to proceed down that track. I am very keen to find a balanced solution, so this government proposes that this bill be referred to a select committee.

We recommend that the members for Reynell, Light and Mawson sit on that committee. All three of these members do a wonderful job engaging and working alongside volunteers and employees of their local emergency services. We would also propose that the members for Kavel and Stuart, who have brought this bill into the house, be part of this select committee. Again, they are both very active local members. As I said, I have always found the member for Kavel to be a very decent person to work with, and I know the member for Stuart is also highly regarded and has been spoken of at great length as possibly being promoted into the shadow cabinet. We think it is appropriate that they join the select committee. We hope the committee can swiftly and effectively move through all of the issues in time for a resolution in the New Year.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:12): I believe the intent of this is good. I agree with the minister that it probably needs some fine tuning. One of the points that I would strongly emphasise—and it is the same for roadworks and similar situations—is that there has to be proper signage. I realise in this case it is probably going to be flashing lights but, if you are going to impose some restriction on motorists and you want them to do the right thing, I think it is only fair and reasonable that they be properly informed that there is going to be signage and a requirement in that situation.

Otherwise, you will find, as happens now with a lot of roadworks situations, that it is not always clear where the roadworks start and end. It is quite confusing. I would ask any member here to look next time they go near roadworks to look at how clearly it is sign posted. The penalties for breaching these things are very high and if people breach them knowing the law it is on their head because it is their stupidity; but, in fairness, I think you have to make it clear to motorists that there is some restriction and it covers a particular area. Otherwise, people will wonder: am I out of the emergency zone, and when can I resume the normal speed? If it goes to the select committee, which I believe it will and should, I think proper signage is one of the important issues, to alert motorists to their legal requirement.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:14): Thank you to all the people who have spoken on this issue. This is a very important issue. We have another very important piece of private members' business to get through so I will not go on for too long, and I will not recap the things I said the first time around. Thank you to the government and to the minister for committing to this house that this bill will be taken to a select committee, and to the minister's office for the correspondence and communication we have had on this issue.

My understanding is that every single emergency service organisation's volunteer group supports this. I understand that the minister has different advice from the police department, so it is appropriate that the minister fully investigates how that piece of advice would fit into what every other organisation says is appropriate.

I put a lot of thought into this before putting the bill forward, and I do think that the way I have proposed it is the most straightforward, the simplest and the most effective. I will not pre-empt the work that the select committee will do in investigating all the other possibilities, but I do believe that the approach that I put forward is the best one.

I appreciate the fact that the select committee will investigate this, and I hope that the government will see that the select committee does its work as quickly as possible and that this is brought back to the house as quickly as possible so that it can then consider the recommendations of the select committee. With those few words, I finish the second reading speech and look forward to the house receiving the recommendations from the select committee.

Bill read a second time.

Standing Orders Suspension

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:17): I move:

That standing orders be so far suspended as to enable me to move a motion without notice to refer the bill to a select committee.

The SPEAKER: I have counted the numbers and a quorum is not present.

A quorum having been formed:

The SPEAKER: There being an absolute majority present, I accept the motion.

Motion carried.

Referred to Select Committee

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:18): I move:

That the bill be referred to a select committee and that the committee examine the Road Traffic (Emergency Vehicles) Amendment Bill.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I move:

That a committee be appointed consisting of the members for Reynell, Mawson, Light, Kavel and Stuart.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I move:

That the committee have the power to send for persons, papers and records, to adjourn from place to place, to continue its sittings during a recess, and that the committee report on 16 February 2012.

Motion carried.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I move:

That standing order 339 be and remain so far suspended as to enable the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence presented to the committee prior to such evidence being reported to the house.

The SPEAKER: There being an absolute majority present, I accept the motion.

Motion carried.

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