Debate resumed from 26 November 2009.

Mr THOMAS GEORGE (Lismore) [4.14 p.m.]: When I last spoke to the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment (Demerit Points) Bill 2009 the debate was interrupted. The letter from Nicola Ribbon continues:

Issue 3, I live 20km out of town and calling a taxi is financially out of the question. School buses are available but not guaranteed, as it will depend on availability of seats. If it is possible to get a lift into town I could then be faced with the possibility of being stranded in town.

Issue 4: There is only one service available to help and that is the medical bus which will only take my daughter to specialist appointments NOT THERAPIST and only within 100km. Most of her Specialist appointments are in Brisbane or Sydney. Family Support Network has no one available until next February. The preschool bus will only take children to and from preschool if they live and attend preschool in Lismore. My last option was In-Home Family Daycare who has just sent me a letter saying they have exceeded their funding and no new hours are available, which means my hours that were supposed to start next week are no longer available. There is a possibility Interchange will help for a couple hours per week but at this stage a volunteer is not confirmed and this time is supposed to be used as respite from my daughter.

Issue 5: The sacrifice my partner will have to make to take myself and my daughter to medical appointments will adversely affect our business and ultimately will affect our ability to pay our mortgage. My partner is an electrician and we employee 3 apprentices. Apprentices are unable to work without a qualified supervisor so for each hour we lose $54.50 in wages plus the income lost due to stop work. Basically it is a loss to our business of a possible $224.50ph

Issue 6: I am also concerned about walking my daughter to school transition as it starts at 11am I only live 1km from the school but I am concerned about the heat bringing on a seizure, not to mention the traffic and walking with my 2 year old, there are no foot paths and the grass edges are difficult to push a stroller as they are sloped. The idea of walking to Bexhill for any supplies for these reasons is plain stupid. And it's not a good idea with a high risk pregnancy walking in our summer's heat anyway.

Issue 7: My daughter has a range of behavioural issues and disorders; I can't expect anyone would truly understand what that would be like unless they had a child like this. Sometimes she behaves okay and other times she is dangerous and full-on. I am under constant stress and frustration. I have suffered depression and sleep deprivation since having her. I know without having a break from her, I will go completely insane!

Issue 8: My daughter starts Primary School, I know that if the school calls because something has happened I will be compelled to jump in my car and rush to her. My eldest son also starts High School and I am concerned if he misses his bus, I will have no choice to drive in and get him as dad works out of mobile range.

As a result, as you can imagine, the impact of this restriction severely and detrimentally affects my family, our business and the families of our employees. I can't force other people to help and there is no other service I know that can help me. What can I do?

This is an example of someone who lives in the country with no access to public transport, who has every problem in the world and who has lost her licence. What is she to do? I have used this example to highlight why the bill is so important to people who live in country and regional New South Wales who have lost demerit points and, consequently, their licences.

Mr GEOFF CORRIGAN (Camden) [4.18 p.m.]: I shall make a brief contribution to the debate on the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment (Demerit Points) Bill 2009 in support of my colleague the former chairman of the Staysafe committee, Mr Paul Gibson, who spoke very determinedly against the bill last week. At that time he outlined his reasons for opposing the bill in great detail. I refer members to his speech. If people plead guilty before a magistrate, they have admitted the offence and they will lose points. They cannot plead guilty and not lose points.

I appreciate the comments of the Leader of The Nationals in relation to this bill, but I do not agree with him. As the former chair of Staysafe said, the more we wind back the penalties imposed for speeding or make it less onerous for people to obtain a drivers licence, the more the road death toll will increase. This year there has been an increase in the road death toll. That increase is not due to bad policing or poor roads. It is due to the overconfidence of drivers and their not being aware of road safety. Yesterday the Staysafe committee tabled a report on pedestrian safety, as a result of a ministerial reference from the former Minister for Roads. Because of an increase in the number of deaths of pedestrians, the Staysafe committee recommended the reintroduction of covert speed cameras.

This recommendation had the support of all committee members—Government, The Nationals, Liberals and Independents. We must look at the reasons for an increase in road deaths. If ordinary citizens make one mistake on the road, go to court and admit the offence, under section 10 they will not have to pay a penalty. However, they will still lose points. If they do not make further mistakes they will not have to worry about a further loss of points. However, if they are serial offenders and keep going back before the judiciary, they must pay the price. I add my strong support for the comments of the member for Blacktown and oppose this bill.

Mr JONATHAN O'DEA (Davidson) [4.21 p.m.]: I wish to make a brief contribution to the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment (Demerit Points) Bill 2009, which was introduced by the Leader of The Nationals. I support his excellent initiative. The bill aims to resolve an inconsistency in the law relating to driver challenges to fines or traffic infringements on the basis of an acceptable excuse. A matter goes before a court and the judge decides that the fine should be overturned. Under this bill, if drivers choose to defend themselves in court for a low-level speeding or red light offence it could result in one of two outcomes: the charge is upheld and the driver is subject to a penalty of a fine and demerit points or the charge is dismissed under section 10 and the driver does not pay a fine or lose points.

I want to highlight two questions on notice asked this year and the answers given by the Minister for Roads and the Minister for Transport. The first question was asked by the member for Mount Druitt in relation to the number of people who had lost their licence through demerit point suspensions. In 2005, 28,451 people lost their licence. That number dramatically increased to 61,243 in 2008. I asked a similar question, which was answered only in the past few days by the Minister for Transport. In the first 10 months of 2009 more than 50,229 people lost their licence. In 2004 the number was 31,863. Over 2004 and 2005 roughly 30,000 people a year lost their licence. Last year and this year on an annualised basis roughly double that number, or 60,000 people, lost their licence.

While I acknowledge that road safety is important and the rules that apply to our roads must be enforced, the doubling of the number of people who have lost their licence indicates that perhaps we have gone too far. Perhaps magistrates should have the power not to impose demerit points for relatively minor offences in extenuating circumstances. The Government realised it had gone too far and acknowledged there was a problem with the number of people losing their licence when it made the decision earlier this year to change the system and revert to a one demerit point loss for the lowest level speed offences. It previously had imposed three demerit points for these offences, which resulted in a large increase in the number of licence cancellations.

The initiative proposed by the Leader of The Nationals is in the same vein. By giving magistrates this sensible power, it addresses an imbalance and reduces an inconsistency in the law. Predictably, the Labor Government is off the road. As we have seen again today, the Labor Government favours malignancy over consistency. The treachery and disloyalty of factional players show that the Government is more interested in performing a puppet show than concentrating on good governance in New South Wales.

Mr ANDREW STONER (Oxley—Leader of The Nationals) [4.26 p.m.], in reply: I thank the members representing the electorates of Maitland, Cabramatta, Blacktown, Camden, Baulkham Hills, Lismore and Davidson for their contributions to the debate. The Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Amendment (Demerit Points) Bill 2009 is a simple one. It is about fairness for the motorists of this great State. It acknowledges a current inconsistency or anomaly in the law—that is, where drivers who have been fined for a low-level speeding offence or traffic light offence go to court and successfully argue mitigating circumstances. They are technically found to have broken the law but the judge exercises discretion under section 10 of the Crimes Act and effectively dismisses the fine. Technically the law was breached, but the judge accepts that there were valid reasons for the offence and decides not to impose a fine.

The anomaly is that the Government considers in those circumstances that another penalty ought to apply. As argued by my colleagues the members representing the electorates of Baulkham Hills, Lismore and Davidson, that is not a fair scenario for drivers who have broken the speed limit—and I do not refer to dangerous speeds but to low-level speeding offences of less than 10 kilometres per hour over the limit. In those cases, the road safety implications are not huge.

A judge may accept that the reason for exceeding the speed limit was valid—perhaps a speed sign was obscured. Any motorist in this State will testify that it is often the case that overhanging trees or other objects obscure speed signs. Quite often the motorist is not aware of the speed limit, or perhaps the driver is attending a medical emergency, or perhaps a passenger in the vehicle is experiencing the onset of a heart attack.

[Business interrupted.]