❓ The Minister for Police outlines details of upcoming anti-hoon legislation amendments to the Road Traffic Act, including increased impounding periods, vehicle confiscation, and new offences.
AnsweredQoN 531Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ANTIHOON LEGISLATION
My question refers to the imminent delivery of yet another election commitment by the Liberal-National government. Will the Minister for Police please outline the details of the legislation he will introduce that will result in Western Australia having the toughest antihoon legislation in Australia? Mr R.F. JOHNSON
My question refers to the imminent delivery of yet another election commitment by the Liberal-National government. Will the Minister for Police please outline the details of the legislation he will introduce that will result in Western Australia having the toughest antihoon legislation in Australia? Mr R.F. JOHNSON
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question, and his commitment to road safety and ensuring those people that break not only the roads rules but also the law will be severely dealt with. Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON replied: I thank the member for the question, and his commitment to road safety and ensuring those people that break not only the roads rules but also the law will be severely dealt with. Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
I thank the member for the question, and his commitment to road safety and ensuring those people that break not only the roads rules but also the law will be severely dealt with. Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON replied: I thank the member for the question, and his commitment to road safety and ensuring those people that break not only the roads rules but also the law will be severely dealt with. Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
I thank the member for the question, and his commitment to road safety and ensuring those people that break not only the roads rules but also the law will be severely dealt with. Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Today I give notice that I will be introducing amendments—commonly known as the antihoon legislation—to the Road Traffic Act into this house tomorrow. Those amendments will give police the power to increase the impounding period for a first offence from seven days to 28 days; and a second or subsequent offence will result in the impounding period being increased from 28 days to three months. Also, police will be required to impound vehicles unless it is impracticable to do so. When it is impracticable to impound a vehicle, a surrender notice will be issued. The responsible person will be required to surrender the vehicle within seven days of issue of the notice. That means that if a person is driving his vehicle on a country road with his wife and a couple of kids in the car, for example, and that person is found to have committed either a hoon offence or an offence under the previous Labor government’s legislation punishable by impoundment, which comes into effect on 1 July, that person will be allowed to continue his journey if the police officer believes that that is the safest thing for him to do. I think that would be the view of the previous responsible minister as well, and our legislation builds on that to some extent. I just wish that the funding for the cost of towing away and storage of the vehicle had come into effect at the same time as the rest of the legislation. This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
This new legislation will also cover situations of vehicles being hidden. The Commissioner of Police will be able to request the director general suspend a vehicle licence until the vehicle is surrendered, and if an application for confiscation is heard by a court, the court is to grant the confiscation order—not may grant, but is to grant—unless there is a financial or physical hardship to another person other than the driver. In other words, if the vehicle belongs to the driver, it shall be confiscated; if it belongs to another party, that party will have to convince the court that they will suffer severe and physical hardship from the loss of the vehicle. Any profit from the sale of a confiscated vehicle shall be paid into the road trauma trust fund, which I am sure will please members. Those funds are used for the promotion of road safety initiatives throughout the state. The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
The amendments contain another change, in that the circumstance of aggravation has been removed to enable easier determination of who has committed a hoon offence for the purpose of confiscation. All reckless driving offences will now be impoundable offences. The amendments contain a new offence of defacing or devaluing a vehicle after being served with a notice of intention to confiscate. In other words, if someone has been served with a notice to deliver his vehicle and he himself deliberately defaces his vehicle or allows his vehicle to be defaced or devalued, he will face a severe penalty. Under this legislation, the police will be able to arrest a person for reckless driving. Very often, it is better to get those people before the court quicker than if they were issued with a summons. That will be to the benefit of road safety in the state. The legislation will allow the commissioner to enter into a contract to permit a contractor to sell or dispose of a confiscated or uncollected vehicle on the commissioner’s behalf. Finally, it will allow the commissioner to recover the shortfall if the proceeds from the sale are insufficient to meet the cost of impounding. In other words, to put it simply, at the moment if a vehicle is impounded for, say, a month, and it is a very low-value vehicle, the owner or driver of the vehicle will not always bother to claim the vehicle because the cost of paying the storage and towage are greater than the value of the vehicle to the owner. Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : What will you do under those circumstances? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : That is a good interjection. Under those circumstances the commissioner will be able to go after that person — Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : And take his house. Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : No; he will not be able to confiscate assets. The commissioner will be allowed to go after that person through the court process to enable him to claim the difference between the amount the vehicle is sold for at auction and what the offender owes for storage and towing. It will be a very fair situation. At the moment, as the former minister will know, WA Police must bear all the costs when a vehicle is not claimed because the value is deemed lower by the owner, driver or offender than what the vehicle is worth. The legislation will stop that from happening. We do not want the state to be paying out for — Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Will all the legal costs be borne by the offender? Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
Mr R.F. JOHNSON : The offender will have to pay any costs incurred in court, such as fines and penalties for dangerous or reckless driving or whatever it might be. At the end of the day, I think this will bring a lot of equity to the situation, which has not been the case in the past. It builds on legislation the former minister introduced—namely, automatic impoundment for 28 days of a person’s motor vehicle if the person is found to be driving while his licence is suspended. The Liberal Party supported that legislation. Our legislation dovetails with that legislation and is more positively directed at encouraging people to drive safely on our roads.
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