Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:39:59) — This legislation provides the legal architecture to deal with safety and innovation and to drive new jobs. The Andrews Labor government has partnered with the automotive and technology industries to support safe and effective trials of automated vehicles on Victorian roads. VicRoads has engaged with the industry to seek feedback on the Labor government's future directions paper, which outlines the need for regulatory changes to allow testing on highly automated vehicles on our roads. The consultation focused on ensuring that road safety during testing on public roads was taken care of, what constitutes a driver being in control and understanding how the changing technology interacts with our transport system.

This is the context that this legislation has been brought in — to look at how we deal with the accelerating change in technology. How do we harness it? How do we use the innovation for safety? And how do we actually then address it? What are the new industries and jobs that can flow from this? I would like to acknowledge the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, who is at the table, who was recently with me in Broadmeadows. This bill draws these bigger-picture legislative ideas down to what they actually mean for businesses. We were together at a local company that was able to do international leading work.

This goes to the history and heritage of Victoria. We have had a fantastic result in road safety with a bipartisan approach over a generation going all of the way back to seatbelts being made compulsory. I think we can say that with pride as a Parliament. This is a another piece of legislation that is dealing with the requirements for safety and then, even more so, harnessing the technology that will drive improvements, creating the settings with businesses and giving them — as the member for Broadmeadows, I am happy to say — some financial support where the new jobs are needed the most.

There you see the full sweep of what a government can do and how it can embrace change, make change a friend, not an enemy, and show people, 'Here's how you have the jobs for the future'. This is this critical dynamic that we are all facing now in how we address these issues. I just want to acknowledge the minister for this piece of legislation, which is part of a whole series, a regime, of changes and initiatives brought by the Andrews Labor government. You have to keep driving the change and be part of what the new industries and jobs will be.

For the detail of the bill, what it looks at are some amendments to the Road Safety Act 1986 to establish a performance-based permit scheme which authorises the testing and development of automated driving technology on public roads. It provides the framework for safe on-road testing and development and enables technology to be developed for local traffic conditions. That is a critical point, because the question that has to be worked through with any innovation is: is it fit for purpose for the specific requirements? And if not, what adjustments have to be made? That is important for that proposition.

The bill positions Victoria as a leader in automated driving technology, which will help create investment opportunities and generate more jobs. And that comes back to the example in the electorate of Broadmeadows, where there is this locally based company that is exporting to a number of countries. This means that they can develop the technology, get the value out of the intellectual property (IP) and increase jobs here, which is a theme that I like to beat like a drum as much as I can because I think this is really what we must do as a state to be the leader nationally. So that is important for that proposition.

The bill also enables the responsible minister to issue guidelines or policies setting out minimum criteria to obtain a permit for the trials. It enables VicRoads to require the trial applicants to demonstrate that the automated driving system (ADS) test driver trial or vehicle has met the relevant guidelines, policies, assessments or requirements, so there is good oversight to make sure that compliance is met. It provides VicRoads with broad powers to grant or refuse permits for trials and impose conditions on those permits, including limiting the trials to specified areas, dates and times. That is to make sure that it is controlled. It ensures that the legal obligations that currently apply to a human driver also apply to an ADS entity or applicant, and it enables the identification of drivers for the purposes of law enforcement and accident investigation, so that covers off any unforeseen propositions on compliance to make sure that we know who is in charge and who is responsible. I think that is an important proposition as well.

The bill also enables the existing offences under the Road Safety Act 1986, and the regulations made under it, and the Crimes Act 1958 to apply, so there is the regulatory oversight. It enables police to prosecute trial permit-holders who do not comply with the conditions of their trial permit, so that is important as well — that there are sanctions and a mechanism to address that. It enables VicRoads to cancel, suspend or vary the permit trial.

I have tried to set out the context of change, what is needed to do it and the regimen for scrutiny, accountability and application. I also just want to address the fact that Victoria will authorise trials of these automated vehicles by granting a permit to the person or entity responsible for the trial. The ADS permit scheme is based on the learner permit scheme for human drivers learning to drive on the road. Victoria's ADS permit approach is meant to be easy to understand and to leverage existing regulatory controls to monitor the trials and maintain road safety, so they are the overarching propositions.

I guess the next question is: why is Victoria taking such an approach to regulating trials? The response has been that Victoria's approach recognises the automated driver system doing the driving and uses the existing regulatory framework to monitor the trials, law enforcement and accident investigation. This approach provides clarity of responsibility and liability. It enables appropriate monitoring and intervention to ensure safety for the community and creates a solid foundation for adapting to further innovation and change, including the wider deployment of automated vehicles at a later stage. So this is a tiered approach to address any concerns that people could have with how this might play out over time, how it develops and how technology changes.

Victoria's ADS permit approach recognises that there is a driver — an automated driving system designed by a company or person to drive a vehicle. A legal entity, whether they be a person or a company, that wants to develop an ADS for use on Victorian roads will need to have an ADS permit and be responsible for that ADS. The bill also clarifies insurance cover, and Victoria's no-fault transport accident compensation regime will apply to persons injured in any traffic accidents involving an automated vehicle.

In summing up, the legislation sets out how this can be road-tested, how it can be done in a manner that is safe for the drivers and for other road users, how we can look at investing in innovation, how we can drive that and how we can actually make sure that companies like the one in my electorate get the value from their intellectual property and hopefully get a market opportunity in a greater way here in Victoria, in Australia and internationally. That completes the virtual circle, as what we are trying to achieve is to bring the jobs here and then take the IP to the world. I want to recommend the bill to the house.