Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - I was not going to speak on the bill but, having listened to the previous speakers, I probably should say something. I support the bill and the way it is written because I am aware of the problems that used to be experienced in relation to the identification of drivers of vehicles. It was too easy for the registered owner of a vehicle to say they were not driving the vehicle at the time, that they did not know who was driving it. That was being used as a defence. There was a real reason for it being used in many instances. It could be demonstrated that people were getting close to losing all their points and there were other reasons for this defence to be used. If you do not have a system such as this, how are you going to control it? It would mean that a business - or a case such as the one the member for Launceston spoke of where you go away, leave your car behind with a family member and you do not know who is driving the vehicle - what an easy way out. What a cop-out to avoid bringing the person who is driving that vehicle at the time to justice.

If you are the owner of the vehicle and you receive an infringement notice through the post and you were not the driver, I would suggest that the very first thing you would do is go to your family members and ask, 'Who has been driving my car? Who had my car on that date?' The infringement notices normally come out within about seven to 10 days of the time of the offence being committed, so it is not as though they come out three or six months later. I would have thought it was a relatively easy thing to do. Most company vehicles now have log books in them - and I heard what the member for Nelson said - specifically for that reason. The police department introduced that years ago because some police were saying, 'I don't know who was driving my vehicle', and properly so -

Mr Aird - Legitimately saying that.

Mr DEAN - Legitimately saying that - therefore they had to introduce log books. There is a requirement now - and I suspect it is still the same - if you are driving another police vehicle you have to record the fact that on that day you were driving that vehicle. It is not an onerous task. If you look at the speeding offences and parking offences that are so often committed by drivers of vehicles, there has to be some control over it. I do not know of any other way and I would be interested for members to put forward another way as to how you can ensure that the driver of a vehicle is adequately and properly identified in all of the circumstances. How do you do it if it is not the responsibility of the registered owner of a vehicle? It would mean that many people would get away with having committed offences simply because of that. I support the bill; the bill is going to be written in a form similar to that, in my view to bring people to justice who are committing offences.

The other point I wanted to make is that when the legislation was passed the councils were of the view that they were protected under this monetary penalties legislation, that they would be able to go through that group to recover parking fee fines et cetera. To find out that it was not there and that they had been excluded was a concern for them because the councils that have parking metres in particular - and not all councils do - there is a large outstanding debt for those councils to recover. The drivers of the vehicles, unfortunately, realise that if they only commit a few offences the chances of a council pursuing that themselves is not likely to happen because it is cost prohibitive. That is in fact what has been happening and councils have been writing off many of these debts year in year out. It is not reasonable for that to continue to occur.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Madam President - my understanding is that all the private-plated vehicles that members drive are not registered in our names, so if we incur a speeding ticket it has to come back here to be determined who was the driver.

Mr DEAN - That is exactly what happens because it happened to me. One of these envelopes came back to me - and I know them very well -

Ms Forrest - You get that many of them, do you?

Mr DEAN - At one stage - and I can say this now - the Commissioner of Police wrote to me when it was first brought out and said, 'The way you're going we'll have to bulk-bill you in future'.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - So that made me pull my horns in a bit.

Mr Wilkinson - But you were driving in the course of your employment as a police officer and it had to be done, didn't it?

Mr DEAN - Yes, it had to be done.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - I would suggest you have your foot off the accelerator, not pull your head in.

[12.30 p.m.]
Mr DEAN - He made the message fairly clearly to me.

You have people parking illegally, knowing that the chances of it being followed up are not likely.

To follow on that story, a notice was sent to me and I knew as soon as I opened it that I was on a world trip at the time, looking at some pulp mills. Very clearly, it was not me. I identified the driver very quickly and the driver put her hand up and accepted the consequences.

Mr Wilkinson - Did you dob your wife in?

Mr DEAN - No, I did not. I simply showed her that and said, 'You work this out because I was not here.'

Mr Wilkinson - Everyone in this Chamber who would dob their wife in, put your hand up.

Mr DEAN - She dobbed herself in.

Mr Wilkinson - But you are still together.

Mr DEAN - I support the bill because I think it is all very well to say that the registered owner of a vehicle should not have to go through this to prove the driver of the vehicle et cetera. It is an easy way out, but you have to bring offenders to justice. You lose control of law and order if you have a system whereby you can simply say, 'I do not know who the driver of the vehicle was, I have no idea'.

Mr Wing - But if you do not know who it was, why should you be punished?

Mr DEAN - You ought to know and you are required to make an inquiry to find out who the driver of your vehicles was. You have the keys to your vehicle. You know who you are leaving the keys of your vehicle with. If the vehicle is being used illegally you report it to the police.

Ms Ritchie - That is right, stolen.

Mr DEAN - It is a stolen vehicle used without your authority.

Mr Wing - No problem with that.

Mr DEAN - You report it to the police, it becomes a criminal matter and clearly you would have a defence.

Mr Wilkinson - Don't you believe there is a duty on the authorities to forward those infringements to the registered owner as swiftly as possible?

Mr DEAN - I do.

Mr Wilkinson - Because the longer the time, if there is a grey area, the harder it becomes and that is the unfairness of it.

Mr DEAN - I absolutely agree with that. I have raised about the issue of the speed cameras which are situated in areas where you cannot see them and therefore you might not receive the infringement notice until some eight to 10 days later. I have always said that is not a desirable course and that the notices should come out within three to four days thereafter. With technology today, I would have thought it was possible for that to occur. I do not disagree with that comment, that they should come out at the earliest opportunity.