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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3033 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

just to do with whether or not tyres are bald; often it is to do with how the tyres are inflated. A softly inflated tyre, particularly on a back wheel of a rear-wheel-drive car, can certainly cause that car to slide out or on one wheel on a front-wheel-drive car it can cause a skid in a particular direction or a blow-out.

Who actually wants regular inspections? Mr Whitecross says that they have consulted with industry groups. Of course, industry groups want more inspections. The more inspections they have, the more work they have. The more work they have, the more money they make. Then Mr Whitecross started quoting from a study in Idaho. What about looking at some Australian studies and doing a comparison, as we can do, of accident levels here, where we had testing for a long time before we moved away from it, with levels in South Australia, for example - looking not at the number of accidents but at the number of vehicle-caused accidents - where there has never been vehicle testing, even on exchange of ownership. In South Australia, the only vehicle testing is when vehicles move from interstate, and there it is to determine whether or not they are stolen vehicles. Of course, we do know that in South Australia, when they had an inquiry into this very matter, they determined that, on a cost-benefit analysis, it was entirely inappropriate to introduce vehicle testing into that State.

It seems to me that the consultation process with the industry groups is really what this is about. It is about ensuring that there is much more work in terms of turnover, and it will, effectively, reinstate the Phillip and Dickson motor vehicle testing stations. If, indeed, this legislation passes, let me say to the Minister - because I do not believe that we as a community should be paying for this - that I will support privatisation of those testing stations, if that is what does occur. In doing so, I also hope that the finger will be pointed very clearly at the Labor Party, and anybody who supports them, every time there is a line-up, every time there is a wait, every time somebody has to pay for their inspection. Do not forget that this is going to increase the costs in terms of people registering their cars and so on. Remember that for the last two or three years of the system we always paid an inspection fee for registering our cars.

Mr Whitecross: It is not true, actually, Michael.

MR MOORE: It is true. There was an extra fee added specifically for the testing of vehicles.

Mr Whitecross: No. It was absorbed in the registration.

MR MOORE: It certainly is true. I think the legislation itself is fine, but the amendments proposed by Mr Whitecross, in the way that they take this legislation and do something entirely different, are entirely inappropriate.

MS HORODNY (10.38): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, we will be supporting the amendments proposed by Mr Whitecross. We believe that they are very sensible. We like the idea of regular vehicle inspections and believe that that is a very good move. We have always thought that random inspections were inadequate because of the numbers of cars tested and the extent of the testing. A particular concern to us is that vehicle emissions are not being adequately tested in the random inspections. In many cases, the vehicles are being tested when they are parked; so, emissions cannot be checked at all.

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