Committee Details

Committee's Report

The committee tabled its Report No. 19, 56th Parliament, Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 on 5 April 2019.  The Bill was passed, without amendment, on 4 September 2019.

About the Bill

On 13 February 2019 the Hon Mark Bailey MP, Minister for Transport and Main Roads introduced the Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019 into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the Transport and Public Works Committee for detailed consideration. The committee tabled its report on 5 April 2019.

The Bill will amend the following legislation:

• Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012
• Traffic Regulation 1962
• Transport Infrastructure Act 1994 (TI Act)
• Transport Infrastructure (Dangerous Goods by Rail) Regulation 2018
• Transport Operations (Marine Pollution) Act 1995 (TOMP Act)
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (TORUM Act)
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Dangerous Goods) Regulation 2018
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Driver Licensing) Regulation 2010
• Transport Planning and Coordination Act 1994
• State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999

The explanatory notes detail that the purpose of the Bill is to:

• Enhance the Interlock Program;
• Introduce alcohol education programs for drink driving offenders including a Brief Intervention Education Program (BIEP) and a Repeat Offender Education Program (ROEP);
• Ensure point-to-point camera enforcement can apply on lengths of road where there are multiple speed limits displayed;
• Ensure mobile camera speed enforcement can apply on lengths of road governed by variable speed limit signs;
• Apply the alcohol and drug testing regime in the TORUM Act to persons suspected of interfering with the operation of a vehicle dangerously under section 328A of the Criminal Code;
• Clarify evidentiary provisions to support the prosecution of offences relating to placard loads of dangerous goods in tunnels;
• Allow the State to, if requested by particular entities, recover the entities’ reasonable costs and expenses incurred while assisting with a marine pollution incident;
• Allow a person issued an infringement notice for a camera detected offence to notify they were not the offending driver and to nominate the actual offender by an online process;
• Allow a court to sentence a person who has pleaded guilty to a charge of drug driving before the laboratory test results are known;
• Clarify that if a person has been disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver licence by a court in another Australian State or Territory, their Queensland driver licence is cancelled from the date the person became disqualified;
• Ensure driver licensing decisions are subject to internal review before proceeding to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT);
• Clarify the operation of existing cumulative driver licence disqualification provisions
• Allow a person who is disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver licence because of an interstate Interlock Program to obtain a Queensland driver licence subject to the Queensland Interlock Program;
• Update existing evidentiary provisions in the TORUM Act (by consolidating and restructuring) and providing for new evidentiary certificates for use in court proceedings;
• Move provisions about exemptions from dangerous goods requirements into regulations and align one of those exemptions with a minor change made to national model dangerous goods legislation;
• Include a head of power to allow heavy vehicle inspection fees to be included in a Queensland regulation to allow them to be subject to Queensland’s normal annual indexation process rather than a separate manual process;
• Provide for evidentiary certificates in the TI Act  to confirm the identity of a toll road operator or local government tollway operator and the existence of a Road Franchise Agreement (or concession deed) for the relevant toll road;
• Broaden the definition of ‘official’ in the TI Act;
• Clarify what activities, structures or things are considered to be ‘ancillary works and encroachments’;
• Provide that a person making an application under the TI Act can do so using an approved form or via the online system;
• Enable the chief executive to publish a notice on the department’s website, rather than the current gazettal process, to exempt certain activities, structures and things from approval under the TI Act where the applicant conforms to the requirements stated in a notice for the structure, activity or thing;
• Clarify that a local government can exercise its powers on a state-controlled road under the Local Government Act 2009, City of Brisbane Act 2010 and TORUM Act;
• Allow a postal address to be provided when nominating a person as the person in charge of a vehicle when a camera detected office is committed; and
• Remove an obsolete references, update definitions, renumbering and section references.

Timeline