NEW ROAD LAWS IN 3 MONTHS
SENATE PASSES ROAD TRAFFIC ACT
THE NEW road traffic legislation was passed by the Senate yesterday, four years after it was first proposed.
The Road Traffic Act 2018, which will repeal and replace the Road Traffic Act 1938, will now go to Governor General Sir Patrick Allen to be signed into law.
However, Leader of Government Business in the Senate Kamina Johnson Smith has indicated that it will be approximately three months before the legislation takes effect.
Johnson Smith, who is also the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, said that the Government wants to ensure that the regulations to govern the new legislation are ready by the time it is passed into law.
“The draft regulations are almost complete. The Ministry of Transport and Mining is continuing final consultations,” she said during the debate on the bill in the Senate.
Opposition Senator Lambert Brown, while expressing his support for the bill, criticised the Government for asking the Upper House to vote on the newest amendments, which were proposed last month without the regulations.
“Put another way, Mr President, the people on the street would say you asking us to buy puss in a bag,” he complained.
Johnson Smith said that the Government will use the time to embark on a public-education campaign “to ensure that everybody understands what is coming; to ensure that the public is made aware of the changes; and to make sure that the operations and systems on the government side are put in place to support the effective implementation of the act”.
The new Road Traffic Bill was first proposed in 2014. Among other things, it outlaws the use of hand-held devices by drivers PLEASE SEE LAWS, A3