John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of uniform road laws and compliance standards. I will give some examples of the silliness that currently exists. On the Victorian border, one driver is caught in Albury every hour performing an illegal U-turn at traffic lights. The move is allowed in Victoria but not in New South Wales unless otherwise signposted. Albury police field at least two phone calls a day about road rules. Confusion also arises for those on learner plates. In New South Wales, learner drivers are unable to travel faster than 80 kilometres per hour, whilst learner drivers in Victoria have no such speed restrictions.

In New South Wales, you can be fined almost five times as much as you would be in Victoria for certain speeding offences. Breaking the limit by 45 kilometres per hour in New South Wales incurs a fine of $2,490, whilst in Victoria it is a penalty of a mere $474. A speeding offence that attracts one demerit point in Victoria could cost you half your Victorian licence if it occurs in Sydney. New South Wales docks three points off your licence if you are caught doing between zero and 15 kilometres per hour over the limit and six points during double demerit periods. In contrast, most other states dock you only one point for the least serious speeding offence.

You can be fined in South Australia if you smoke in a vehicle that is carrying someone under the age of 16. In Melbourne or Adelaide, you can be fined for turning right from the right-hand lane, where you should perform a hook turn. This is accepted practice in Sydney. If you try to do a U-turn at traffic lights in Sydney, you will be fined. It is perfectly legal in most cases in Melbourne and Adelaide. In Melbourne and Adelaide, you can never overtake a stopped tram. Fines and demerit points apply in New South Wales if you overtake on an unbroken white line, but that law is not enforced in Victoria.

In the ACT, a learner licence is obtainable from the age of 15 years and nine months. A provisional licence is obtainable from the age of 17 years. To be qualified, you only have to have had a learner licence for six months. You need to display a P plate for three years unless you have completed the Road Ready Plus course after having had a licence for more than six months. If the Road Ready Plus course is taken, you are also granted a four demerit point allowance.

In New South Wales, a complicated three-stage graduated licensing scheme exists. Learner licences are obtainable at the age of 16 years and require 120 hours of supervised driving. A P1 licence is required for a year and there is a 90 kilometres per hour restriction. A P2 licence is required for two years, and the driver may drive at 100 kilometres per hour and is allowed seven demerit points. There are complaints that speed restrictions cause problems on country roads and highways where other drivers can go up to 110 kilometres per hour. It is the variation of speed that creates this danger.

In Queensland, there have been reforms made to make it similar to New South Wales, and there are only a few minor differences.

In South Australia, L plates are available at 16 years of age and you are required to do 75 hours with a 100 kilometres per hour restriction. P plates allow four demerit points and must be held for two years. In resolving this issue the focus should not be on the debate about which laws are better, although this would be ideal. The most important issue surely is the standardisation of all road laws throughout Australia. These laws are in place to properly administer road traffic throughout Australia efficiently and, to the best of our current knowledge, to enhance productivity and safety.

We are constantly subjected to fear campaigns about speed being the primary culprit in road fatalities and injuries. The extraordinary facts are that there are fewer fatalities now than there were in the late forties and early fifties, yet the number of private vehicles has risen dramatically and continues to do so. There are currently over 10 million registered cars in Australia compared with 769,000 in 1950. The biggest contributor to the reduction in fatalities and injuries is the improvement in the primary and secondary safety of our cars—that is, the ability to avoid an accident due to improved braking and handling performance characteristics in cars, protection of passengers, who are in a virtual safety cage with absorbing materials and design around it, seatbelt laws and airbag technology.

Improved driver awareness campaigns have also been a big contributor in this regard. This may have led to more educated drivers, but it has also created a syndrome where pedestrians are overly protected and overly empowered, with devastating effects. There is a strong belief among motoring authorities, including Peter MacKay, Australia's leading automotive journalist, that driver education and the ability to get a licence is too easy and that the laws to entrap, create revenues and take the driver's licence away are too great and treat the driver like a cash cow. There are any number of examples of speed camera locations and tricky variations in speed, which trap all except those with heightened levels of vigilance. Drivers are really wicked people; they speed! In short, a licence is too easy to get and too easy to lose. That is not the right formula.

It would appear that drivers are the only target for road safety, yet in metropolitan Sydney pedestrians represent one in three deaths on our roads. In Australia we have gone through generations of giving a voice to those who are in need of assistance. This syndrome has resulted in the empowerment of pedestrians and it now puts them in peril due to their own sense of rights and invincibility. The association of Australian and New Zealand road transport and traffic authorities has described pedestrians as:

… the largest single road-user group. Most individual trips, whatever the primary mode used, begin and/or finish with a walk section, so that walking is a fundamental component of all travel.

Yet where is the focus for awareness of pedestrian education and their behaviour on our roads? Where is their punishment for endangering their own safety and that of other road users?

The motion today highlights our nation's clear need for consistent and appropriate speed limits. Uniformity in our rules is very important. We require a level of standardisation of our laws to educate new drivers on how to drive not just in the location of their test but also in foreign conditions. It does not make sense that a 17-year-old, just hours after gaining a licence in Sydney, can drive to Melbourne and be asked to perform a hook turn, which is something he or she would never have heard of.

The variability of speed is a great danger. I drive on a road every day where the speed limit goes from 80 kilometres per hour to 40 kilometres per hour to 80 kilometres per hour to 60 kilometres per hour in the space of one kilometre. Whilst this has been implemented in the name of safety, the variability makes the roads increasingly dangerous as drivers become overly confused by their obligations. We have become increasingly conscious of speed as a direct correlation to danger and fatalities. That is based on common sense. However, the data tells us that the safest roads in the world remain the autobahns in Germany, the roads with no speed limits, as drivers drive to their own capacity rather than feel an obligation to sit on a signed limit. Similarly, the decrease in speed limit on open roads in the Northern Territory saw an increase in fatalities in the following year. These facts show that it is not always the logical solution that attains the desired result. Upskilling and re-educating drivers is important, but maybe we need to think outside the square in implementing uniform rules. Perhaps we need to implement a requirement to re-sit drivers licences every 10 years. I sat my driver's licence more than 40 years ago and, despite living overseas for 14 years, I have never been asked since to show that I understand the local road rules, yet I received my licence before roundabouts were in existence. Surrounding all this, in all states and territories, there is one standout issue—that is, the importance of addressing pedestrian safety through education campaigns and uniform and appropriate laws that are enforced.

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