00:00There hasn't been a lot of research on double demerit points recently. We do know from Transport
00:08for New South Wales data that there are fewer fatalities during holiday periods than you
00:14would otherwise expect, which may be related to the double demerit point system that they
00:19have. There was research done years ago when the systems were first introduced, but there
00:25hasn't been a lot since, and it would be good to see an evaluation of the various different
00:32systems that there are around the country to see exactly where the efficacy is.
00:37Yeah, could you take us through what double demerit looks like around the country or what
00:43the sort of schemes are in all the states and territories around Australia?
00:47Yeah, it does vary by state and territory in Australia. So in New South Wales, the ACT
00:54and WA, you have double demerit point systems in place for everyone during holiday periods
01:01where there's increased risk. In Queensland, in contrast, you have double demerit points
01:08in place all the time, but only for a second or subsequent infringement within a 12-month
01:15period. And then in the other states, there aren't double demerit point systems in place.
01:22So with this sort of lack of research, as you say, even if there is little or nothing
01:27to prove that double demerits do work in the way that they're intended, is there any harm
01:33in running those campaigns anyway, though?
01:36Sadly, in this country, three people on average will lose their lives every day to road trauma,
01:44and 100 will end up in hospital with serious, possibly life-changing injuries. And over
01:50the last four years, those numbers tragically have been going up rather than down. So anything
01:56that we can do to raise awareness about road safety, to get people thinking about driving
02:02more safely, is going to be a good thing. The holidays are a period of increased risk.
02:09You have heavier traffic on the road. You have people driving long distances, perhaps
02:15to unfamiliar locations. Perhaps there's a caravan attached that you wouldn't normally
02:19be driving with. And then you get traffic jams and people who are tired and stressed.
02:26So you've got all the ingredients for increased risk. And we need to be thinking all the time
02:31about how to keep everyone safe on our roads.
02:34Absolutely. At the moment, these double demerit campaigns and other sort of road safety campaigns
02:40are really rolled out for significant holidays. Do you think there would be any benefit in
02:46expanding these sorts of schemes?
02:48Well, that would be part of an evaluation to look at the differences, for example, in
02:54the outcomes from the New South Wales ACT and WA system versus the Queensland system,
03:01for example. But there's a whole lot more that goes into it as well. There are community
03:06awareness raising campaigns that have to happen around it so that people are aware of the
03:11double demerit points. And you've got to make sure that there is timeliness. If you
03:17have an infringement and you don't know anything about it until four weeks later when it turns
03:22up in the mail, then it hasn't actually done anything to change your driving behaviour
03:26at the time. So there are lots of elements to be considered.
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