Ministers must reduce penalties or admit reform failure

Federal, state and territory transport ministers must reduce unfair heavy vehicle fines, which don’t improve safety outcomes or admit that six years of reviewing the Heavy Vehicle National Law have been a failure.

The National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) released its submission on the draft new Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and the review of HVNL penalties in late November.

“After six years of talking, the proposed changes to the HVNL are incremental at best,” said Warren Clark, NatRoad CEO. 

“Ministers are yet to decide if they will reduce unfair penalties and the test of six years of talking will be whether noticeable, on the ground, improvements for industry are delivered.”

NatRoad said more penalties should be reduced and the proposed increases should be rejected.

“The proposed changes to penalties would see 21 reductions, but another 50 increases to penalties. In some cases, it is proposed fines are increased by 100%, taking maximum penalties to almost $30,000,” Mr Clark said. 

“The review is a missed opportunity to eliminate minor fines, which are not improving safety, or delivering meaningful reductions to these penalties to make the roads fairer for our drivers.

“We know that Australia has a driver shortage of over 26,000 positions and that punitive fines are only making this more difficult, with no measurable safety outcome.

“NatRoad has proposed a range of bigger cuts to penalties for minor offences, governments should show leadership and reduce unfair fines as a priority.”

The NatRoad submission also calls for governments not to go backwards by reducing flexibility for fatigue management.

“Buried in the detail of the draft new law and regulations are changes that would wind back fatigue flexibility for some operators currently on Advanced Fatigue Management,” Mr Clark said.

“It is completely unacceptable that a reform intended to move us into the 21^st century now threatens to take us backwards and undermine improving safety outcomes.”

Future legislative and non-legislative reform on improving heavy vehicle access also remains critical.

“NatRoad has set a clear goal that 90 percent of access permits need to be eliminated by 2028,” Mr Clark said.

“Governments must prioritise proposed changes to improve general access as well as ensuring automated access is delivered on time and in full.

“If Australia does not fix access by 2028 then the HVNL review will have been a decade long road to nowhere.”