In February 2007, the Queensland Government passed the Transport Legislation and Another Act Amendment Act 2007 (Qld) to support the phasing in of new rules to apply to young learner and provisional drivers.

The first phase commences in July 2007. The Research Brief firstly considers trends and issues relating to young drivers on pages 2-4. It then briefly discusses two reports tabled by the Queensland Parliamentary Travelsafe Committee in December 2003 and a Queensland Government Discussion Paper on pages 4-6.

The Travelsafe Committee Reports, Reducing the road toll for young Queenslanders – is education enough? and Provisional Driver and Rider Licence Restrictions considered ways to reduce young driver crashes and made a number of recommendations.

The Queensland Government’s October 2005 ‘Queensland youth – on the road and in control’ Discussion Paper sought to engage the community in relation to proposals to improve young driver safety.

The features of new rules for young learner and provisional drivers, authorised by the recently enacted Transport Legislation and Another Act Amendment Act 2007 (Qld), are outlined on pages 6-19. These include (but not all restrictions apply to drivers aged 25 years and over) –
 

▪ for learner drivers – reducing the minimum age to obtain a learner licence to 16 and extending its length to 12 months; requiring a minimum of 100 hours on-road driving experience to advance to a provisional licence; and a ban on all mobile phone use while driving;
 

▪ for provisional drivers – a split provisional phase; display of P plates; a hazard perception test to advance from the first to the second provisionalphase; bans on all mobile phone use while driving for the first year of provisional driving; restrictions on carrying peer passengers late at night for the first year of driving; late night driving restrictions on provisional drivers returning from a driving disqualification; high powered vehicle restrictions; and requiring provisional and open licence holders to recommence at the first provisional stage when returning from disqualification.

The Brief then provides a review of young driver restrictions in other jurisdictions on pages 19-22 and in Appendix A. The information contained in this Research Brief is current as at 18 April 2007.