Driving License Reform !

Possibly the worst personal disaster that can happen to a person is to be hit and seriously injured by an unregistered motor vehicle being driven by an unlicensed driver.  All the forms of compensation carefully built around the licensing of car and driver become null and void - and do not apply.

There are many unlicensed cars on our roads and many are driven by unlicensed drivers.  The usual reason cars are unlicensed is the owner lacks the money to pay for both the green slip insurance that covers accident victims for personal injuries and the usual fee for annual registration demanded by the state government.   Those lacking a valid driving license seem to be over represented in unlicensed vehicle on our road statistics.

We have every reason to expect that unlicensed vehicles will be swiftly detected.  All police cars have scanning equipment that reads the number plates of the car stream and checks automatically for unregistered or cars reported stolen.  Usually, the penalty for the driver of an unregistered vehicle is both a fine - and driving license cancellation.

The cancellation of driving licenses has become a form of penalty that has moved far from actual driver behaviour.  It can be inflicted for failing to vote in elections or even fishing without an appropriate fishing license.  The state debt recovery office uses driver license cancellation to pressure citizens to pay all manner of monies owing, including unpaid court fines.   It has become a weapon of choicer for debt collection.

The problem is that we seriously undervalue driving licenses in todays society.  For many people the car is the only possible means of transport.  In country towns public transport ceases to exist and those on the fringe of cities have simply no other means of getting to work or getting the kids to school.

There is an unfortunate continuity of offences resulting in the permanent cancellation of many driving licenses.  They run cumulatively, hence once a timed cancellation is in force any addition simply extends that cancellation and it can quickly amount to an almost indefinite ban on the right to drive.  Such a person may find access to paid employment severely limited and youthful indiscretions extending driving license suspension  into middle age.

The figures are alarming.  In 2017 we issued 20,000 driving license cancellations in this state, and 12,000 people were caught driving without a license. In the past, there was no  way a license cancellation could be restored by review and no way a reformed driver could regain the right to drive a car.

It is now possible for a person with driving license cancellation to apply to a magistrate to lift what amounted to a lifetime ban if they can convince that they had reformed or that the cancellation was for a reason not applicable to driving.  This will not apply to serious offences such as hit and run or menacing driving.  So far 700 reformed drivers have been given a second chance.

This is certainly controversial but it seems that driving license cancellation has become a convenient penalty that has extended far outside the bounds of  disciplining road behaviour. The onus is on the cancelled driver to convince the magistrate they deserve a second chance and in many cases age has resulted in a mature outlook on driving that was lacking in their youth.