Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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TRAFFIC AMENDMENT (SUSPENSION OF LICENCE) BILL 2006

Bill presented and read a first time.

Ms CARNEY (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill now be read a second time.

This bill is also a part of the alternative government’s policies dealing with road safety in the Northern Territory. This bill is remarkably straightforward because it will achieve what is required and which this government so foolishly in our view and others simply refuses to do.

The government should know, but they appear not to, that there is a range of things that cause fatalities in the Northern Territory. First is alcohol, and we have just talked about that. That is why we proposed in the preceding bill to confiscate people’s cars if they habitually drink and drive. Fast or slow, driving alone kills. Speeding or not speeding, you could still be killed in a motor vehicle. Seat belts and failure to wear them are a significant factor in road fatalities and injuries in the Northern Territory. For anyone who doubts that, I invite them to look at the government’s own report which was widely published and circulated throughout the Northern Territory.

What enraged the opposition and other Territorians was that in the political spin and huff and puff which typically represented the Chief Minister’s announcement on this issue, she failed to satisfactorily address the issue of failure to wear seat belts. Once again, it falls to the opposition to do so. The CLP is prepared to legislate that people who breach the law consistently should lose their licences. That is a quantum difference between the two parties. It is not an imposition of any sort to demand that Territorians wear their seat belts. It takes less than a second to put on, and even less to take off. We have, for the most part, modern cars - some of them not maintained as well as they should be - but all vehicles in the Territory do, and if they do not they most certainly should, they may have been ripped out, but they do have seat belts. People who choose not to wear seat belts are, logically, much more susceptible to greater injury and death. Therefore, those people, through their own foolishness and irresponsibility, represent a burden on us all when they are in the hospitals of the Northern Territory.

This bill intends to drive the message home even more strongly than it has ever been driven home before, and its essence is blindingly simple: if you do not wear your seat belt consistently, we will take away your licence. ‘Consistently’ means three times in 12 months. If you are found guilty of that offence, then your licence will be suspended for three months. Territorians should not bear the costs - physical, emotional, financial or otherwise - of other people’s laziness and stupidity. Some time ago, we issued yet another policy. Unlike the government, we issued a policy called Seat Belts Save Lives. It is part of our comprehensive plan to improve road safety in the Territory and reduce road fatalities. As I have said, if a driver is caught three times in 12 months for a seat belt infringement, they will receive a mandatory - there is that word – three-month suspension of their licence.

The policy is broader than the bill. We want to see seat belts in school buses. We want to see education; that is important in any road safety initiative. We are not afraid to take the plunge where this government refuses to do so. If you do not wear your seat belt three times in 12 months, your licence will be suspended. I will be surprised if the government supports this bill because they have said, somewhat arrogantly, that they have all the answers to road safety. This is a simple and straightforward policy. It is a good one.

If you do not, government members, through you, Madam Speaker, support this, then one will wonder why, and all Territorians will say that this government just does not get it. Its own figures are such that failure to wear seat belts is a significant factor in fatalities and injuries, and yet this government fails to act. They have done a bit about seat belts in their big policy, but there is not much there.

This is a fair dinkum, cut through, easy to understand, how-can-it-fail policy. One has to consider a carrot and stick approach. This is definitely the stick. If you do not put your seat belt on in the Northern Territory you are going to lose your licence. I am not sure how on earth anyone could have difficulty with that. It is for that reason that I commend this sensational bill to government members.

Debate adjourned.

 

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