Hansard debates

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:13): I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Ordered that second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard:

Overview

The Government continues to improve Victoria’s vast transport network for today and the years ahead. We are focussed on embedding a strong culture of road safety and improving the effective management of roads across our state. We are also committed to supporting an efficient, safe and sustainable ports and freight transport system that enhances Victoria’s economic prosperity and liveability. This Bill will amend the Road Safety Act 1986 to enable the expansion of point-to-point average speed enforcement to improve road safety outcomes and reduce the number of lives lost. The Bill will also amend the Road Management Act 2004 to introduce new powers to temporarily declare a road to provide certainty around road authority functions and responsibilities. This Bill will also implement key actions from the Victorian Freight Plan and make permanent existing temporary exemptions for Victorian emergency services under the Heavy Vehicle National Law. This Bill will also deliver technical amendments, improved processes and better administrative outcomes across a range of transport legislation.

Road safety reforms

In Victoria, speeding contributes to at least 30 per cent of road fatalities and a quarter of serious injuries sustained by light vehicle occupants each year. That is why the Victorian Government continues to support actions to improve road safety outcomes in line with the Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021–30. This includes implementing better speed management practices to encourage safer driver behaviour by using stronger and smarter enforcement practices.

The Bill amends the Road Safety Act 1986 to enable the expansion of point-to-point average speed enforcement to allow enforcement in high-risk, high-speed scenarios along lengths of road where there are multiple speed limits. Point-to-point average speed is based on a calculation of a vehicle’s average speed between two known, fixed points known as detection points. Point-to-point average speed enforcement is currently used in a number of locations in Victoria, however the existing formula in the Road Safety Act for calculating a vehicle’s average speed is limited in that the speed limit between the two detection points needs to be the same across the entire length of road. This prevents average speed enforcement being used along lengths of road (or networks of roads) where there is more than one speed limit.

To overcome this limitation, the Bill amends the Road Safety Act to enable point-to-point average speed enforcement across multiple speed zones. The Bill introduces new formulas for both calculating the average speed limit that applies between two detection points that span different speed zones and calculating the average speed of a vehicle that has travelled between those two points. The Bill also introduces a new offence to the Road Safety Act 1986 that a driver of a motor vehicle must not drive in a manner so that the average speed of the vehicle (as calculated) exceeds the average speed limit (as calculated) that applies on the total length of road between those specific detection points.

In some cases where temporary speed limits apply, for example, where a temporary speed sign is used for road works, the reduced speed limit would be disregarded and the maximum speed limit for that section of road would be the speed limit for the purposes of calculating a vehicle’s average speed. Temporarily reduced speed limits could still be enforced through existing methods of detecting a vehicle’s speed at a point in time, either by road safety cameras or by Victoria Police members.

The Government is also making changes to address concerns about the use of the operator onus scheme and to ensure responsible drivers are held accountable for their actions. The Bill amends the Road Safety Act 1986 to ensure that it will be acceptable to use an Australian or overseas residential address when describing a person nominated in a statement. Under the operator onus scheme, the operator of the vehicle is held responsible for an offence unless that operator nominates the person who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence. Currently, a home address for the responsible driver must be included in a nomination statement, which is defined in the Road Safety Act 1986 as “the person’s residential address or place of abode in Australia”. This definition has enabled some authorities to refuse to accept nominations with overseas drivers addresses, which goes against the intention of the operator onus nature of these offences. The Bill amends the Road Safety Act 1986 to replace the reference to home address with residential address to ensure that it will be acceptable to use an Australian or overseas residential address when describing a person nominated in a statement. Similar amendments are proposed to the Melbourne City Link Act 1995, the Eastlink Project Act 2004, the West Gate Tunnel (Truck Bans and Traffic Management) Act 2019, the North East Link Act 2020 and the Marine Safety Act 2010.

To support this change, the Government will also amend the Road Safety (General) Regulations 2019 to require the provision of additional points of identification, for example, a passport number, where nomination statements are provided with an overseas address. This is intended to ease the burden on councils in locating and recovering infringement amounts from overseas drivers. In addition, the Bill amends the Road Safety Act ‍1986 to adjust the period in which proceedings may commence for an offence of providing false or misleading information in statements provided to enforcement officials, including nomination statements. It can take a significant length of time to detect false statements made under the operator onus scheme, particularly where statements nominate a driver whose residential address is overseas. The Bill addresses this by extending the time to commence proceedings for this offence from 24 months to 3 years.

Road management reforms

The Government is making improvements to ensure new roads can be effectively managed as soon as they are ready. There is often considerable pressure to open a road to the public once the construction phase reaches completion but before they have been formally declared to be roads under the Road Management Act 2004. As a result, roads are being used by the public without any road authority functions being formally assigned under that Act.

Road declarations require the completion of a number of steps, including negotiating and completing the acquisition of land in situations where not all of the land in the new road reserve is already owned by the state government. Further, accurate survey plans need to be undertaken by licensed surveyors and these cannot be done until construction of the road is mostly complete. This is due to the exact boundaries of the road, including key structures such as bridges, not being known until late in the construction process. For these reasons, it is often not possible to declare roads under the Road Management Act before they are open to the public.

The Bill amends the Road Management Act 2004 to provide the Head, Transport for Victoria (HTfV) with a special power to temporarily declare and classify a road so that road authority responsibilities can be assigned while a full and permanent road declaration is still pending. This assignment of road authority responsibilities ensures there is an entity with legal responsibility for key functions such as the inspection, maintenance and repair of the new road. The assignment of a road authority for a new road that is being used by traffic also helps to address issues around liability in the event of incidents.

Implementing the Victorian Freight Plan

In 2025, the Victorian Government released The Victorian Freight Plan 2025–30: Victoria Delivers – the Government’s plan to meet the challenge of higher freight volumes as Victoria’s population continues to grow and our demand for freight continues to increase. The vision for the plan is to protect and strengthen Victoria’s competitive advantage, to enhance Victoria’s liveability and economic prosperity. The plan outlines the high-level objectives, strategic priority areas and the actions that will be taken to deliver on the objectives over the next five years to support thriving freight and supply chains in Victoria. Two of the actions call for improved data sharing between Government and industry to support the performance and transparency of Victoria’s ports system. These two actions are addressed in this Bill.

The first action relates to improved oversight of port precinct truck activity. The Bill amends the Port Management Act 1995 to require operators of prescribed terminals within the Port of Melbourne (stevedoring businesses) to collect prescribed information on trucks and truck activity to and from facilities and to share this information with the Department of Transport and Planning. The information is likely to include registration plate numbers, engine details, fuel type, vehicle age, frequency of access to the prescribed terminal and the quantity of containers collected and/or delivered. Stevedoring businesses already collect a range of information relating to the vehicle, and this new measure will build on this existing system. Failure to provide this information will be an offence, as will intentionally providing false or misleading information. This new requirement aims to improve the efficiency of truck activity in the area of the port and support policy development.

The second action relates to improved container shipping information. The Bill amends the Port Management Act 1995 to insert a new provision requiring the owner of a cargo vessel that berths in a prescribed commercial port to supply prescribed information to the Department of Transport and Planning in accordance with the prescribed time, format and delivery method to be set out in regulations. The information is likely to include details of the characteristics, content, origin and destination of shipping containers. Failure to supply this information will be an offence, as will intentionally providing false or misleading information. At present, shipping companies operating across Victoria’s commercial ports provide container shipping information to Ports Victoria, container stevedoring terminal operators, and other entities along the freight supply chain, but the form of the information provided is not always consistent, creating inefficiencies in the supply chain. The new requirement will provide for consistent electronic container shipping information, which will be made available to industry. This measure aims to support more efficient movement of containers through the supply chain and further targeted policy development where needed.

Heavy Vehicle National Law exemptions

The Bill amends the Heavy Vehicle National Law Application Act 2013 to make permanent existing time-limited exemptions for emergency services from fatigue management requirements.

Victorian emergency services are currently exempt from some fatigue management record-keeping requirements under the Heavy Vehicle National Law. These exemptions are currently provided by a time-limited notice issued by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

To provide ongoing clarity and certainty, and to reduce burden on volunteers, the Bill amends the Heavy Vehicle National Law Application Act 2013 (Vic) to make these exemptions permanent in Victorian legislation.

Other amendments to improve processes

The Bill also makes other process and administrative amendments to improve the clarity and operation of these key pieces of transport legislation. These amendments include changes to the Road Safety Act 1986 to reflect recent updates to the Road Safety Road Rules 2017 related to the wearing of seat belts and the need for passengers in vehicles to not occupy the same seating position. There are also changes to the Rail Management Act 1996 to remove a requirement to consult when maximum rail access prices are maintained or increased by no more than the Consumer Price Index. The Bill also amends the Port Management Act 1995 to clarify where and when local port managers can charge commercial rates of fees.

Other minor and technical governance changes include amendments to toll road legislation to update delegation requirements, allow toll road operators to execute a deed without the use of an official seal, remove redundant road management provisions and transfer administrative functions from the Secretary to the Head, Transport for Victoria. These amendments relate to the North East Link Act 2020, Melbourne City Link Act ‍1995, EastLink Project Act 2004, and West Gate Tunnel (Truck Bans and Traffic Management) Act 2019, as well as the Transport Integration Act 2010.

Conclusion

This Bill reflects the Victorian Government’s continued commitment to improving our transport network and reinforcing Victoria’s position as the freight and logistics centre of Australia. The Bill will improve road safety outcomes and the management of Victoria’s roads, implement actions from the Victorian Freight Plan, and deliver improved processes and administrative outcomes across a range of transport legislation.

I commend the Bill to the house.