A member of parliament questions the minister about the true motivation behind the deployment of Multanova speed cameras, suggesting it's to reduce a backlog of infringements rather than improve road safety. The minister vehemently denies this, asserting the police's focus is on road safety.

AnsweredQoN 376Legislative Assembly
Asked
16 August 2007
Portfolio
Police and Emergency Services

QuestionView source ↗

MULTANOVA SPEED CAMERAS
As a supplementary question, can the minister categorically deny that this plan had nothing to do with road safety and was in fact a cynical plan to cut the massive backlog of infringements that had been causing him and his government so much embarrassment? Mr J.C. KOBELKE

AnswerView source ↗

I deny that absolutely. The situation is that the police are about enforcing road safety. They are making a tremendous effort at it. Under the current commissioner, a range of officers have been swapped to the traffic enforcement group, and a new operational group has been set up and officers have been assigned to it and cars have been purchased. The police are putting a much larger effort into having a visible presence on the roads. That has now been extended to country highways. Locating Multanovas in country areas is a very proactive way of making sure that our roads are safer. I have confidence that the police are doing that to ensure that our roads are safer and not, as the member has implied, simply to try to fix up some book work.
Mr J.C. KOBELKE replied: I deny that absolutely. The situation is that the police are about enforcing road safety. They are making a tremendous effort at it. Under the current commissioner, a range of officers have been swapped to the traffic enforcement group, and a new operational group has been set up and officers have been assigned to it and cars have been purchased. The police are putting a much larger effort into having a visible presence on the roads. That has now been extended to country highways. Locating Multanovas in country areas is a very proactive way of making sure that our roads are safer. I have confidence that the police are doing that to ensure that our roads are safer and not, as the member has implied, simply to try to fix up some book work.
I deny that absolutely. The situation is that the police are about enforcing road safety. They are making a tremendous effort at it. Under the current commissioner, a range of officers have been swapped to the traffic enforcement group, and a new operational group has been set up and officers have been assigned to it and cars have been purchased. The police are putting a much larger effort into having a visible presence on the roads. That has now been extended to country highways. Locating Multanovas in country areas is a very proactive way of making sure that our roads are safer. I have confidence that the police are doing that to ensure that our roads are safer and not, as the member has implied, simply to try to fix up some book work.

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