House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-08 Daily Xml

Contents

Expiation Notices

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:17): A supplementary question. Given that in the minister's answer he said that road safety is improving, and given that in his answer he said that police will retain their independent discretion with regard to how they hand out expiation notices, why is the government budgeting for a 34 per cent increase in revenue from police-issued infringement notices, rising from $64 million in 2012-13 to $86 million this financial year?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:17): I thank the honourable member for his question. There are two things. First, what we do with that is extrapolate the budget figure—in other words, what has actually occurred in the past—and we extrapolate further on that. We will also have more people on the road, more people driving, and the likelihood—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Secondly, we will actually have more police than when the Liberals were in and they will therefore be more active. Thirdly, we are putting in more speed cameras—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: We have more speed cameras in place, and the reality is that unfortunately people continue to break the law and we will collect revenue. I would prefer that we collected no expiation notices on our roads because that would mean that people were not breaking the law. Our roads would be safer, and we would have fewer people in our hospitals recovering from accidents as well. Again, it is disappointing that the member for Stuart does not reinforce the road safety message, and distracts from the important message that we need to send out to the community about road safety by trying to score cheap political points.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order sir—

The SPEAKER: I think the minister has finished, and before we go to another supplementary, the member for Heysen is warned a first time; the leader is warned a first time; the Treasurer is warned a second time; the member for Newland is called to order; the deputy leader is warned a first time; and the member for Morialta is called to order. A supplementary: member for Stuart.