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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-16 Daily Xml
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MOTOR VEHICLES (MISCELLANEOUS) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 21 July 2010.)

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (11:28): I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak to this bill, the main purpose of which is to correct some errors, omissions and anomalies from earlier amendment bills. I will make a reasonably brief contribution, given that it is quite a simple bill and that it is non-contentious. The amendment of the act needs to occur in order that the government's original motor vehicle legislation has the intended effect. The amendments relate to the graduated licensing scheme, regulation-making powers for the high powered vehicle restriction scheme, and the drug and alcohol dependency assessments.

Disregarding a few minor drafting issues, which have been tied up, the areas of some significance are as follows. The amendment of section 79B effectively replaces a scheme that the court had previously administered. We support the objective of relieving the courts from being involved in certain matters. First, a licence applicant who has had convictions or expiations relating to drugs and alcohol must undergo a substance dependency assessment. Secondly, I point out that drug dependency is met with a licence refusal while alcohol dependency requires a licence subject to the alcohol interlock scheme conditions.

Further, section 47J of the Road Traffic Act lists the circumstances requiring the applicant to undergo an assessment and, where it was previously court based, this has now been transferred to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. The move makes sense in administrative and resource terms. The bill also deletes an anomaly regarding a timing aspect. The bill proposes to use the date of committing the latest offence instead of using the date of application for a licence. In doing so, we avoid the potential abuse by an applicant to defer the date of application to avoid undergoing a dependency assessment.

The next amendment to mention relates to the bill of last year which dealt with particular licence class holders operating high-powered vehicles. Under that legislation, a P-plater can apply for an exemption to be able to operate such a vehicle. Section 81AB of the Motor Vehicles Act refers to situations where probationary licence conditions should be placed on a driver. The Graduated Licensing Scheme Act clarified those circumstances.

As I understand it, the amendments to section 81AB in the Graduated Licensing Scheme Act were significant and reasonably complex and, as such, there was a cross-referencing omission which meant that a disqualified P-plater may return to driving, after an appeals process, to non-probationary conditions. This was obviously not the intent of the legislation and certainly needs to be tidied up.

The opposition is happy to support this bill but is disappointed that the amendments from last year had to be revisited so quickly and, again, is an example of a government that has passed its use-by date and simply cannot get its act together and get things right. However, we are happy to correct it today.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (11:30): I thank the honourable member for his contribution and his support for this bill. I have also managed to speak briefly to most of the minor parties and Independents, who have also expressed support for this bill, and I thank them for their cooperation. This is, indeed, a very simple bill. It contains a number of very minor technical amendments that are aimed at improving the operations of the Motor Vehicle Act 1959. It is a simple bill and a non-contentious bill and, therefore, I look forward to it being dealt with expeditiously through the committee stage.

Bill read a second time and taken through its remaining stages.

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