Northern Territory (Australia) Finally gets demerit points

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Well i know this may not be of any interest to you guys, but in the next 3 months the Northern Territory will be the last part of Australia to introduce demerit points on a driving licence.
The points sytem goes as follows:

DEMERIT points will come into force within three months in the Territory as part of a road safety legislation blitz.

A graduated driver licensing system for P-plate and L-plate drivers will commence in July.

Legislation expected to be introduced today will include demerit points with the standard punishments for the following offences from September 1:

SPEEDING (1-6 points).
IGNORING a red light (3 points).
IGNORING a level crossing signal (3 points).
DRIVING without a seatbelt (3 points).
DRINK-driving (3 points).
TALKING on a mobile phone (3 points).
DRIVING without an L-plate or P plate (2 points).
HOONING - including speed racing and burnouts (3 points).

Transport Minister Delia Lawrie said these offences made up 87 per cent of all fines issues by police last year.

"These demerit points will affect recidivist bad drivers who like to hoon around," she said.

"This will not affect mum and dad drivers who drive carefully."

Ms Lawrie said she believed that less than 1 per cent of demerit points recorded in the Territory would cause drivers to lose their licences.

Territory drivers will have their licence suspended if they accumulate 12 demerit points or more over three years.

New drivers on L-plate and P-plates face similar penalties at five points or more within a year.

Suspensions range from three to five months.

Opposition Transport spokeswoman Faye Miller said demerit points are not relevant to the Territory.

"Hoons will still hoon and people will still speed whether there is a demerit system or not," she said.

She did not believe demerit points had saved a life anywhere in Australia.

Parliament will also debate amendments to the Traffic Act and Motor Vehicles Act to introduce the first phase of graduated driver licensing from July.

Drivers under 25 years on P-plates would hold them for two years and new drivers over the age of 25 would have to hold P-plates for 12 months.

So, Drink driving is as bad as pretty much anything else in regards to motoring offences. Not surprising that the NT has the worst accident record in the developed world!
 
divine_madness said:
I love the way 'HOONING' is a term for an offence :p

haha can count on the australians for using awesome words for such serious things! :D bet zip does some hooning every now and then in his camry :D
 
I remember while taking a coach trip from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock earlier this year the guide was telling us how it was only recently that Nothern Territory introduced a speed limit on the main highways.

Looks like they're cracking down a bit now though!
 
Indeed, speed limits were introduced on Jan 1st this year.
Now were are restricted to 130kmh on the main road south. Bear in mind though that its single carriageway with a handful of overtaking lanes for the 1st 100km of so South of Darwin. For the other 1300km of the journey South i think its just single carriageway. Oh and you have to watch out for Cattle and Kangaroos on the road too :)

Was fun while it lasted though!
 
Unluckyalf said:
For the other 1300km of the journey South i think its just single carriageway.

But from what I saw of the Stuart Highway south of Alice you can see if there is anything coming in the other direction for about 20km :p
 
Unluckyalf said:
Ms Lawrie said she believed that less than 1 per cent of demerit points recorded in the Territory would cause drivers to lose their licences.

Could someone clarify what she is trying to say here? I've read this numerous times but can't get my head around exactly what she means.
 
Dogbreath said:
Could someone clarify what she is trying to say here? I've read this numerous times but can't get my head around exactly what she means.

She means most people won't rack up 12 points.
 
SoliD said:
haha can count on the australians for using awesome words for such serious things! :D bet zip does some hooning every now and then in his camry :D
Lol

"Hooning"(Burn outs, wheel spins, other things like that_ in my State will get you car impounded :p

if you get it do it agian you get the car taken off you forgood AFAIK.



The Closest too hooning i do is going for a belt down back roads or thrashing ol Krusty down a summer track in winter :p
 
Unluckyalf said:
Not surprising that the NT has the worst accident record in the developed world!

using the term developed losely then! Heh, bit of a shame will be in the only territory I don't visit on my current trip to the antipode :(
 
Well seems more sensible than here with some things, if your only just over the speed limit you get 1 point and scale up from there :)
 
Zip said:
Its a weird place that Territory :p

Driving laws have always been super relaxed


Everything here seems to be relaxed! Gun laws require you to pass a written test on gun safety and if you keep a gun then you need to have an appropriate gun locker.... thats it. There seems to be no requirement that you are actually able to shoot the thing!

Shame though, since i have been here we have speed limits and now points. I supose we are going to start having fixed speed cameras next!
They only just formed a traffic unit here in Decmeber and there are 8 cars and 2 motorbikes for a Territory the size of Texas
 
You mean right now I can get drunk, drive home at 100mph without a seatbelt while on the phone running though red lights after red lights and still not be charged with anything ? :eek:
 
Unluckyalf said:
Shame though, since i have been here we have speed limits and now points. I supose we are going to start having fixed speed cameras next!


Tis a shame about the speed limets :(

Dont count on Fixed speed cameras, I live near adelaide and i can only think of about 2 locations where they have them and one doubles up as a red light camera.

If you gonna be done it will be by a cop hiding behind the bushing off the side of the road only to see a signup the road a few hundred meters that says "Speed cameras save lives" just to rub it in :p
 
Raymond Lin said:
You mean right now I can get drunk, drive home at 100mph without a seatbelt while on the phone running though red lights after red lights and still not be charged with anything ? :eek:

LOL not quite. Speed limits are between 60 and 100kph in town and you would probably get a $100 fine for breaking that (around £40).
I was done a few months ago for using a mobile phone and that was $50

So right now, you would probably get around a $400 fine and a night in a cell. Next day though you are free to drive again :)


This made me chuckle.... from a report on speeding in the NT
The NT Report describes the rate of repeat speeding offences in the NT as alarming. Of the 44 276
individuals who were issued with 74 531 speeding fines between 2003 and 2005:
• 8165 were issued with two speeding fines
• 3418 were issued with three speeding fines
• 3227 were issued with between 4 and 10 speeding fines.
A staggering 134 people were issued with 11 or more speeding fines, with the worst speeding
offender receiving 47 fines in the three-year period (NT Report, page 50).
There is currently no effective system to deter people from re-offending. Research has shown
that fines alone, while important, are not an effective means of preventing repeat offenders from
driving dangerously


So one guy got caught speeding 47 times in 3 years and the most they could do was to give him the statutory fine.

Territorians are at greater risk of being killed in a road crash than people in the rest of the developed
world. In fact, the risk of being killed on Northern Territory (NT) roads is about three times greater
than everywhere else in Australia
 
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