Law Changes !

From next January 1 it will not be necessary to display a registration sticker on the windscreen of your car.  These are being discontinued in New South Wales as a cost cutting exercise following similar moves in West Australia in 2010 and South Australia in 2011.   The state government is confident that the new number plate recognition technology being installed in police cars will detect any unregistered cars and keep registrations under control.

It is promised that registration renewal notices will still be sent to each car owner and this should eliminate the excuse of the missing stickers making people prone to forget that registration is due.   That was not done in the other two states, and was the most criticised component of the new scheme.    At the very least, motorists will not miss the task of scraping off the old sticker each year and trying to remove the residue from the glass.

What remains to be dealt with is the totally unnecessary privacy law that prevents the owner of a motor vehicle to be identified by way of the vehicle number plate.   Huge numbers of people have had the experience of seeing another vehicle cause damage and then speed away.  Along with other witnesses, they have reported to the police with the registration details of that car, only to be told that the police can not reveal the name and address of the owner - because of privacy laws.

Basically, by hiding behind this law the police are actually aiding and abetting a crime.   The crazy thing is that having been supplied with this information and the statements of witnesses, the police can proceed to charge that driver with the offence of not stopping after an accident and exchanging license details - but they are still unable to supply the aggrieved party with the name and address necessary to start a civil claim to recover the cost of the damage.

Why is a person who has committed a criminal act protected from being identified ?   We urgently need a  law change to remove this veil of secrecy.  There is no valid reason why the owners of every registered motor vehicle should not be available on a common register for all to see..

It is simply a " bad law " when legislation protects the guilty from " due process " - and it needs to be changed !