If you love racking up demerit points and palming them off, you might want to think again.
The Minns Labor Government has set up a taskforce, comprised of Transport for NSW, NSW Police and Revenue NSW, to crack down on drivers exploiting the demerit point system.
“The demerit point system in NSW was designed more than 50 years ago and has been a key plank in improvements that have enhanced road safety over those five decades.” said Minister for Roads John Graham.
“The NSW Government has zero tolerance for anyone trying to subvert the system. There is one set of road rules and they apply equally to all.”
The Demerit Point Integrity Taskforce has been established to identify any fraudulent behaviour in the demerit point scheme, such as drivers racking up high numbers of demerits and those selling demerit points online, including on Facebook Marketplace.
It will investigate any gaming of the legitimate process for nominating another driver to take demerit points for an offence.
The NSW Government is beefing up the system to make it more robust after a recent high-profile case where a French national had more than 200 demerit points applied to his licence.
There are 6.9 million NSW driver licence holders, but the Taskforce will focus on a tiny fraction (0.005%) of drivers who have 20 or more demerit points.
The Taskforce will review the suitability of current penalties, suspensions and what extra measures are available to deter people who rack up extremely high demerits.
For example, a driver with 13 demerit points receives the same five-month suspension as a driver with 20 or more.
The Taskforce will also examine:
- Who is eligible to opt for a good behaviour period in lieu of a suspension, based on how many demerits they have
- The ability for a driver to be back on the road between suspensions. This can occur when, for example, a driver is first suspended for unpaid fines. When that suspension is lifted, a driver with excess demerits will then be served with notice to suspend but is able to drive in the intervening period before the next suspension starts
- Better enforcement options in the case that someone owns a vehicle, does not drive it, but still receives the infringements associated with the vehicle
- Rental companies accessing demerit balance or driving history before approving a rental
The Taskforce will initially run for three months and report its findings to Government.
In light of a rising number of lives being lost on roads across Australia, the NSW Government is committed to improving road safety to keep communities safe.
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