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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-05 Daily Xml
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STATUTES AMENDMENT (TRANSPORT PORTFOLIO—ALCOHOL AND DRUGS) BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 3 February 2009. Page 1150.)

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:42): I rise to indicate my support for this bill and what it intends to achieve. The main focus of the bill is to deal with repeat offenders, thereby reducing the rate of drink driving. I support the increases in penalties. If this is the focus of the bill, I wonder why the government has not increased the time limit for previous convictions. I have placed on file amendments which change all references in the Road Traffic Act, the Motor Vehicles Act and the Harbors and Navigation Act to the time frame for consideration of previous drink and drug driving offences in sentencing repeat offenders.

The current law provides that, if you have committed an offence more than five years after a previous offence, you are treated as if you are a first time offender for the purpose of paying a penalty. I am of the view that five years is not long enough for consideration of previous offences and that the court should be given the flexibility of looking at a road traffic offender's history over a longer period of time than five years and be able to apply a higher penalty as a result.

In other jurisdictions in Australia the time period for considering previous convictions varies in their relevant road traffic legislation. I advise members that in Western Australia there is a time limit of 20 years, in Victoria it is 10 years, in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT there is a five-year limit, a three-year limit in the Northern Territory and no time limit under Tasmanian law. I refer to the comments made by the Minister for Road Safety in response to the Road Traffic Act (Previous Convictions) Amendment Bill introduced by the Hon. Nick Xenophon in 2006—a bill which aimed to implement the same 10-year period for consideration of previous drink driving offences under the Road Traffic Act. The minister said:

The government is prepared to support an extension of the period from five years, [and] members may be interested to know that a 10-year time limit would be consistent with proposals currently under consideration by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General for nationally consistent spent conviction legislation.

I know that the spent conviction legislation referred to is in a slightly different context to the one I address in my amendments. However, the principle is the same, namely, having a consistent and appropriate time limit for taking into account previous convictions, given the gravity of the offence and the deterrent effect tougher penalties for repeat offenders are designed to have. I hope the government is still amenable to discussing increasing the time limit and that members will consider my amendments.

Debate adjourned.

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