Kelly Vincent – 5RPH interview on introducing a demerit point penalty for illegally parking in accessible car parks
09/12/2015
On Wednesday 9th December 2015, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station 5RPH to discuss Dignity for Disability’s proposal for a demerit point penalty to be introduced for people who illegally parking in accessible car parks. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Richard Morgan: Time now to welcome to 5RPH question time, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Richard.
Richard Morgan: Kelly, about six months ago you introduced a bill to the parliament slating increased penalties to people who park illegally in accessible car parks. These parks are designated for people with disability parking permits. Can you tell us what the effect of this bill would be?
Kelly Vincent: Well the effect of the bill would be to leave the fine for illegally parking in an access park without a permit at around $350, so leave the fine as it currently is. But then introduce a demerit point offence so that if a person is caught parking illegally in an access parking space they will lose one demerit point against their license, as already occurs with a number of different parking offences. This offence for the illegal use of disability access parking permits already happens in New South Wales. So it’s only a single demerit point and if you have a full driver’s license – you have twelve demerit points you can lose before you lose your license as a result. The usual appeal mechanisms will apply, so if you forget to put up your permit and you get fined and lose a demerit point you can appeal to have that removed on the basis of that you do have a permit, you just forgot to hang it up for example.
Richard Morgan: Now, isn’t it just car parking, why is this measure important?
Kelly Vincent: Well you could say that it’s just car parking and it might seem like a simple issue and not a very important one. But it’s really interesting when you start to consider the impact that not being able to find an accessible car park, because the other ones are taken by people who don’t have a permit – the impact that has on a person’s life and their ability to interact with the community. If people can’t get a park at their shopping centre, a concert venue, cinema, library, art gallery, a medical appointment or even a café or restaurant; so they can attend safely and with ease, then that can have a big impact on their ability to access that venue for that day. And I think it’s important to remember too that access parks are not just about convenience. I think a lot of the conversation centres around convenience when it really is about safety Richard. If for example, someone like myself who is a wheelchair user can’t find an accessible park close to a venue and has to park further away and walk across a crowded, busy, and possibly even dark carpark where we might be less visible because we’re sitting down then that has obvious safety concerns. And I even remember speaking to a constituent a few weeks ago, she told me that once she couldn’t get into the side of her car because two cars had parked alongside her in a standard carpark, so she had to ask a stranger to back her car out for her so she could get her wheelchair back in the car. And again, that has obvious safety concerns, I think handing the keys of your car to a complete stranger. So this is about safety and that’s why a demerit point is the right offence as it sends that strong message that this is not just about convenience, it’s about the safety that these selfish, lawbreakers pose to other motorists.
Richard Morgan: Yeah good point. Does your office get many calls or emails about the issue?
Kelly Vincent: Good question Richard, we certainly do. It’s been quite extraordinary the response, since this issue has been raised again on Saturday on the front page of the Advertiser newspaper. And since then we’ve had many dozens of calls, letters and emails to my office and hundreds of comments on social media. The vast majority I have to say are supporting the proposal and I think the Advertiser ran a poll which showed that around 86% of voters on that pole supported the proposal for demerit points. So certainly some passionate opinions are being expressed. Many people don’t have much background or awareness of people with disabilities and our needs and seem very certain that only people with permits should park there or will often confront people. So I think this goes to show, it’s not just people with disabilities or older people who do have these permits that care, it’s also an issue that people without permits care about as well as they can see it’s about courtesy, it’s about respect, and as I said it’s about the safety of other community members.
Richard Morgan: Now, I understand that the government is going to support your initiative despite some administrative challenges. When do you think this will come into effect in South Australia?
Kelly Vincent: Well you’ve hit the nail on the head there Richard. There are some administrative challenges, I guess you can call it that, to work through. Where it was done in New South Wales it was done via legislation quite simply. But New South Wales have a slightly more centralised system for fining and offences relating to traffic than we do in South Australia. So here in South Australia it’s a little more nuanced between local government and state government. So we do need to figure out the best way to move forward with this proposal. This could still be via legislation and Dignity for Disability does still have a bill before the parliament to do that. But if it turns out that a mechanism other than legislation is best then we’ll definitely proceed with that. So at the moment we do know that we have the government’s support for this proposal which we’re very glad to have and it’s good the government can recognise this as being the important issue that it is, and the Minister for Transport, Stephen Mullighan is currently working out the best mechanism to move forward. I will definitely keep you updated as things move along, but I think alongside whatever the mechanism ends up being there will need to be a campaign as appeared similarly in the eighties and nineties like ‘check the permit not the person’ – raising awareness of things like invisible disability and the fact that not everyone who uses these permit parks uses a wheelchair. But also for people to adjust to the fact that they will receive a demerit point if they continue to park in access parks without a permit, and so there will certainly need to be a grace period if you like, where we raise awareness about this to make sure that we do challenge driver behaviour.
Richard Morgan: Kelly, thanks for talking with us tonight.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks Richard. I’m happy to keep you updated as things progress.
Richard Morgan: Dignity for Disability MLC, Kelly Vincent.
