Former police officer and Australian Labor Party (ALP) electoral candidate Naomi Oakley has called for the demerit points system to be revised, saying it’s “too easy” for motorists to lose their driver’s licence.
Ms Oakley, who was a Victoria Police officer for 12 years, is the ALP candidate for the Victorian seat of Casey, which covers an area north of Melbourne including the Yarra Ranges and stretching east towards Mansfield.
In a submission to an ALP committee, Ms Oakley called for changes to penalties, saying the prevailing circumstances are unfair to Victorian drivers and make it too easy for them to lose their licence.
“The present penalty framework, combined with the growing variety of speed cameras across suburban and concrete areas, is placing disproportionate pressure on on a regular basis drivers,” Ms Oakley’s submission said.
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“This is especially evident in relation to the three-year demerit point accumulation window, which is leading to higher levels of licence suspensions and, subsequently, unlicenced driving.”
The Victorian state government doesn’t publish the variety of drivers who’ve had their driver’s licence suspended or cancelled.
Nevertheless, a complete 51,150 fines for driving while unlicenced were issued across Australia in 2024, based on the federal government website roadsafety.gov.au.
Of those, 7090 were issued in Victoria, rating it third behind Queensland (25,135) and Latest South Wales (9355).
Victoria falls to fifth of the eight Australian states and territories on the subject of the variety of fines for driving unlicenced per 10,000 licence holders, at 13 – behind Queensland (60 per 10,000), South Australia (49), Northern Territory (26), and NSW (15).
To combat the variety of unlicenced drivers, Ms Oakley said the reset point for demerit points should occur sooner.
“A two-year window is a more balanced response measure for low-level or infrequent offences, avoiding excessive penalties for otherwise responsible drivers,” Ms Oakley’s submission said.
“Reducing the demerit point window from three years to 2 years will maintain road safety while delivering a fairer, more balanced system that supports each compliance and community wellbeing.”
The ALP candidate also pointed to hurry cameras and changes to hurry limits as unfairly pushing up the variety of infringements.
“Post-Covid, there was a marked increase in speed cameras, including in built-up and suburban streets where speed has not historically been a major issue,” the submission said.
“Urban speed zones have decreased (eg: from 40km/h to 30km/h), amplifying the impact of minor breaches.”
Of three.3 million speeding fines issued nationally in 2024, roughly 2.8 million (83.6 per cent) got here from speed cameras.
Cell phone detection cameras accounted for 87.6 per cent of the 330,926 fines issued for phone use infringements – with the variety of fines greater than tripling since 2019.
The identical proportion of the 183,315 seatbelt fines recorded in 2024 were camera-enforced, with 3.5 times the full variety of infringements issued.
The Queensland state government posted record revenue of nearly $465 million by fining motorists within the 2023-2024 financial yr, up from $171.2 million between 2019-2020 – despite the variety of fines taking place in that point.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
