Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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TRAFFIC AMENDMENT BILL (NO. 3) 2009

Mr GILES (Braitling): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time and, in doing so, seek leave to table the accompanying explanatory memorandum.

Leave granted.


Respected Northern Territory writer, Nicolas Rothwell, late last year wrote in
The Weekend Australian that the Northern Territory was a failed state and that successive governments have simply plundered money and resources earmarked to alleviate the terrible disadvantage we see around us to more palatable or mis-administered areas.

Nowhere is the legacy of this practice more obvious than our regional roads. We have all seen the wrecks that pass for motor vehicles; the problems is easy identifiable. But it behoves us in this House to also find solutions and find explanations. There are many reasons why people might drive one of these cars. It may be because of lack of income and therefore lack of capacity to service a car; it may also be for lack of capacity to register and insure the vehicle, and it might be just because of lack of want.


And there are those who are simply too lazy or are negligent and putting their fellow Territorians lives at risk. Many people in the Territory find themselves continually having to pay for ongoing repairs and maintenance to their cars simply because of the condition of our roads. I do have compassion for those who wish to do the right thing but, for one reason or another, they simply can not. Think for one minute about the people whose cars become derelict because of the conditions on our roads. Law abiding Territorians going to buy second-hand car for $5000 take it out onto the regional roads and within three months it looks like a candidate for the next episode of the
Bush Mechanics.

In a normal jurisdiction - a place that is not a failed state, I should say - cars destroy roads, but in the Northern Territory roads destroy cars and we do not have to look hard to find these roads, they are all around us. Whether you are on the Tiwi Islands or driving the Tanami Highway out to Yuendumu, the Sandover or the Plenty Highways, the Arnhem Highway, the Mereenie Loop, the Daly River Road - which the member for Daly has promised to fix many a time, including the bridge, or the Fog Bay Road – which is also in the member for Daly’s electorate which he has promised to fix. They started the roadworks just before the Wet Season started, which was quite smart. It is as if they do not have the money to fix the roads in the Northern Territory.


I previously referred to the Commonwealth Grants Commission and its report into the Northern Territory spending. The Commonwealth Grants Commission topped up the Territory by $190m to a total of $270m in the crucial area of roads funding in 2007-08. The Henderson government had $270m to spend on roads. Guess how much they actually spent? $98m, a shortfall of $172m in that one financial year of 2007-08. They actually only spent 37% of what they should have spent - and that was $25m less than they spent the year before. No wonder the roads in the regions are of third world conditions. In the last five financial years, the Henderson Labor government has underspent on roads by $484m. That equates to nearly $0.5bn underspent on our roads in a five-year period which could have brought these up to good condition, so that cars, of which this legislation is supposed to be about, would not be in our roads in that derelict condition.


This is a tough bill. This is a bill that says: ‘Get your crappy cars off the roads. Get your derelict cars off the road; the cars that have no brakes, that are not safe, that we see driving around in the street’. This is what this bill is about. However, I understand from both sides of the equation. I understand, on the other hand, the social responsibility of these people who go out and spend their hard-earned cash to buy a car they expect to be able to drive properly. However, it is neglect of this dysfunctional Labor government to spend money on the roads to ensure people are able to safely drive on those roads. This is the reason these cars are on the roads. I do not want to penalise the people who save hard and bought these vehicles and want to drive them around. The reason they have become derelict is because of this dysfunctional Labor government not spending their roads money on fixing our regional roads. However, I have no choice, because there are people who drive our streets who should not have their lives and their family’s lives put at risk by cars driving around the street which are unsafe and unroadworthy. It is a tough piece of legislation, and I would like to implement both parts.


Unfortunately, I only have the capacity to introduce the legislative instrument, not make the Labor government, which is dysfunctional and cannot manage the budget and fix our roads do anything. The member for Nelson could, but I do no think he will.


In additional to the lack of regional focus on roads spending by this dysfunctional Labor government, we have seen the regions go backwards in economic trade and provisions of goods and services. It is harder to go shopping, attend school, and find essentials at uninflated prices. What we see is an increase in travel to obtain such services. In turn, more people are on our roads, driving their cars on bad roads. It is important to understand the reasons behind some of the social issues that force more and more people on to our roads. What are the situations that encourage the greater road network patronage - if you can call it a network? We should be identifying solutions that take more people off our roads. One such model is rural transport for school kids, so that parents do not all have to drive their school kids there. We can have the public transport model. I like to call it remote bussing. I have been an advocate of remote bussing for some time now, and continue it in this House.


The Commonwealth Grants Commission makes some riveting reading. I might run through some of those figures just quickly now. One of the most interesting areas is the financial amount spent by the dysfunctional Labor government on transporting rural schoolchildren to schools throughout the Northern Territory. The Commonwealth Grants Commission tells us the Northern Territory government had $8.1m available from its own source revenue, as assessed, to spend on transport of rural children to school. The Commonwealth Grants Commission determined the Northern Territory needed an additional $6.6m to enable the Territory to provide the same level of service as other states and territories. So, we got extra money, which took our available funding for the 2007-08 financial year for the transport of rural schoolchildren to $14.7m.


Do you know how much the Henderson dysfunctional Labor government actually spent? Out of $14.7m, how much did they spend on transporting rural schoolchildren to school? I know the minister for Corrections knows this, because last week he gave someone advice that, with three hours notice, how quickly you can quote on getting a bus to transport rural kids to school ...


Mr Conlan:
Is this a ministerial opinion?

Mr GILES:
Yes. Three hours Mr Palmer said - three hours. Well, out of $14.7m to transport rural schoolchildren to school, they spent $1m in 2007-08 - $1m. It is not about the inputs - and I know my colleagues behind me, the members for Brennan and Sanderson like to castigate the government …

Mr Conlan:
Dysfunctional.

Mr GILES:
Yes, the dysfunctional Labor government for all their inputs that they talk about, they spend $1m. Now the Territory is a pretty big place. I am not bus expert, but I reckon it will cost more than $1m to transport all the Territory kids to school.

Let me just go over it again. The Northern Territory government, according to the Commonwealth Grants Commission, should have spent $14.7m and they spent $1m. If you are like some people who are numbers people, they spent 7% of the assessed budget on transporting kids to school. And here we have the member for Casuarina, the minister for family and community services talking about what they are doing for kids and how they stand up for child protection. Five ministers in nine years; four of them women, two of them Indigenous, and we are in the worst state we have ever been with child protection – the worst state.


A member:
National disgrace.

Mr GILES:
A national disgrace, Madam Speaker. The Little Children are Sacred report, and here we have no money getting spent on transporting rural school kids to school. And this is relevant to this legislation, because this is why we see these derelict cars for people to drive on a dodgy road because the government does not fix the roads and does not provide bus services, and then wonders why the little children report is out there, why the Bath report was coming out and these different things about kids. You are not looking after them. All five of the children’s services ministers are failures. Four of them are women – mothers; two of them Aboriginal, gee, can it get any worse?

For the same period, the Commonwealth Grants Commission topped up the Northern Territory government requirements of $23.18m with an extra $2.2m for urban transport, but instead of the government, the Northern Territory dysfunctional Labor government, spending $23m on urban transport in the Northern Territory, they actually spent $57m, nearly $34m over budget. It is not a problem with doing over services, but that is 246% of what is required to be spent to provide urban transport to Territorians as assessed by the Commonwealth Grants Commission at the national average.


In 2007-08, the Territory government overspent in urban transport by 246%, when the transport of remote school children, a year after the
Little Children are Sacred report, a year after the worst crisis in the Northern Territory with protecting children, they spent 7% of the budget. Where is the priority? Who was the family and children services minister then? Who was the Transport minister; the Infrastructure minister? Because you are all failures. You are bloody pathetic (inaudible).

Now we see more free urban bus travel announced to ensure that Labor stays in power. Great policy. I told you I would support in my ministerial report response. But it is only good if you can afford it. Free travel everywhere, but the kids who have got to get to school, education the great focus of 2030, you will not even transport them to school. The (inaudible) you can build bike paths in the rural area to stay in government. They are gonna build a bike path in Nelson, but they will not send a kid to school in the bush. How does the member for Nelson hang his head with that? How can you do that, Madam Speaker? It is a disgrace. You have to get those kids to school, it says in this lovely 2030 document. You are not even sending the kids to school. Your are an absolute disgrace.


What about the kids in the regional areas? What about the car driving over those bad roads to take the kids to school? You will go to bed tonight, you will be right. Death traps on many occasions. Death traps that venture into our town and cause hazard on our roads. I hate standing here bringing this legislation in, because I know I am going to be taking precious vehicles off people in Alice Springs, in Braitling and across the Territory, but they are not safe. They are not safe because you will not fix the roads and you will not look after the kids.


Dysfunctional Labor is taking money off rural school children’s transport, money set aside so the bush kids can get to school. Instead of (inaudible) over there, the ones that are playing Family Feud, when the member for Johnston hates the member for this one, and they all hate each other. Pork barrelling the seat of Nelson with bike paths will not send kids to school. Is it only me, or does someone else have a problem with this? Where is the choice for Territorians? There is no choice in this place. Yesterday was a joke in this place.


And the (inaudible) is not just limited to 2007-08. No, the big urban spenders have been doing this for the full five years, taken in by the CGC report last year. In 2003-04, the underspend for transport for bush kids to get to school was $12.1m. In 2004-05, they underspent by $10m; 2005-06 by $11m; 2006-07 by $13m - they are getting worse and worse. The under spend is $60m for transport for school kids in five years. What sort of government does that, Madam Speaker? $60m should get transport for school kids out in the bush. $60m directed somewhere else by this dysfunctional Labor government. Where did it go?


This bill is important because it seeks to amend the
Traffic Act and introduce a concept of a Class C prescribed offence. A Class C prescribed driving offence will enable the impounding and forfeiture provisions to apply to unregistered vehicles as required. The bill has been written to accommodate the government’s hooning offences Class A prescribed driving offences and on the assumption that the bill titled Traffic Amendment Bill 2009 (Serial 38) has been passed by the Legislative Assembly. For the purposes of explaining this for Hansard and for the minister and for government, this is talking about, in another bit of legislation that is before this House for debate, we have created a Class B prescribed driving offence for confiscation of vehicles where someone is caught at a high range for the third time in five years. This creates a Class C prescribed driving offence for the confiscation of vehicles in line with the hooning legislation which is now being reclassified as Class A. This sets up so you have Class A for hooning, Class B for high rate drinking driving repeat three times, and Class C for unroadworthy vehicles.

The bill has been written to accommodate the hooning offences. I will just repeat that: Class A for prescribed driving offences and on the assumption that bill titled Traffic Bill Amendment 2009 has been passed by the Legislative Assembly. The specifics of this bill are as follows:


· clause 1 sets out the short title of the bill;

· clause 2 describes when the act will commence;
· clause 3 indicates that the act will be amended by this bill as the Traffic Act;
· clause 4 inserts a definition of a Class C prescribed offence in section 29AB as required through out the various subsections;
· clause 5 amends section 29AD(1) to enable these provisions to apply to Class C prescribed driving offences;
· clause 6 sets out the circumstances that allow this division to apply to Class C prescribed driving offences;
· clause 7 amends the heading and provisions within section 29AH to accommodate a Class C prescribed driving offence and enable the courts to impose an impounding order for a second Class C prescribed driving offence;
· clause 8 amends the heading and provisions with section 29AI to accommodate a Class C prescribed driving offence and enable the courts to impose a forfeiture order for a third Class C prescribed driving offence within five years;
· clause 9 amends section 29AT to accommodate a Class C prescribed driving offence;
· clause 10 - section 33 has been amended to allow a driver to drive an unregistered vehicle in accordance with provisions of an impounding order;
· clause 11 amends section 33A to allow a driver to drive an unregistered heavy vehicle in accordance with conditions of an impounding order;
· clause 12 amends section 51 to accommodate the proposed provisions of this bill;
· clause 13 inserts transitional provisions so these amendments to the act only apply offences committed after commencement of these amendments;
· clause 14 notifies that there are amendments to the Traffic Regulations; and
· clause 15 amends Regulation 91A stipulating that a Class C prescribed driving offences is an offence against section 33(1)(a) of the Traffic Act and applies to unregistered vehicles and an offence against section 33A(1)(a) to capture heavy vehicles.

Today we take a step forward to ensure all Territorians play their part, accept their responsibility, in ensuring their vehicle is safe and roadworthy. The great challenge that remains of course is getting the Henderson government, the dysfunctional and arrogant, tired and lazy Henderson government, to meet its responsibility to spend funding earmarked to tackle disadvantage responsibly.


It is a gargantuan task, Madam Speaker, possibly one beyond all of us unless you are the member for Nelson. We might die trying particularly if it involves us venturing out onto regional roads. Whatever the future, it will be a work in progress for my friends on this side of the Chamber. While ever we live under this functional Labor government we will continue to have no choice and will continue to be a laughing stock around the country; a pimple on the backside of the federal government and, as Nicholas Rothwell said, a failed bill.


Madam Speaker, I will just quickly go over a couple of statistics of drink-drivers in the Northern Territory to rest the case. According to the Police Annual Report, and I will quote here for the benefit of the member for Barkly:
      People aged 15 years or over who indicated that they have driven in the past 12 months when possibly over the 0.05 alcohol limit, rarely or more often.
The national average is 10%. In the Northern Territory is 14%. So 14% of the people who had driven over the last 12 months who are over 15-years of age have driven over the limit. Now what do we catch? A proportion of drivers breath tested who were detected for drink driving - 3.1%. The national average is 4%. So the national average is 10% of people who think they drink drive and 4% in court, Northern Territory think 14% drink-drive, and we only catch 3%. That is the problem.

The numbers of drink-drivers that come in are only relative to the people that a tested. In the Northern Territory in the period between 01July 2008 and 31August 2009, 13 months as indicated on this paperwork here, it says 155 000 breath test conducted, which I believe is good and I believe the Minister for Transport has increased the drink-driving - I am not sure if comes under you or the Minister for Police, but that is a good thing - 49 000 in Alice Springs in the southern region, 63 000 in the Greater Darwin Region and 37 000 in the Katherine Northern region.


The highest number of people in court are in the Greater Darwin region - 1487 in that period - which is quite interesting because they had 63 000 tests, and picked up nearly 1 500 people. Alice Springs and southern region had 15 000 tested and picked up 1300, so proportionately there seems to be more in the Greater Darwin area, only slightly, but still interesting; and in the Katherine region 37 000 tests for 862 people. Now the people who are picked up for drink-driving, 3000 are men and 760 female.


An interesting component is who is picked up at low range, medium range and high range and this is all relative to the legislation. Out of 3700 people drink-driving, there are about 1400 at high range which is quite high (inaudible). There were nearly 2 000 at medium range, and there were 360 at low range. So that is a clear indication, without even doing an analysis of that, when you have more than 90% of drink-drivers in the Northern Territory at medium or high range, that is a clear problem. And it is interesting when you go and have a look at the type of people who were picked up. There were 87 people picked up for drink-driving in the Northern Territory in that 13 month period who are under 18-years of age, 17-years and under. Two people picked up at medium range who were 13. Eight people picked up who were 15. It is a problem.


I commend the bill to the House, and I look forward to the debate.


Debate adjourned.


 


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