Road to Justice: Opposition supports The Advertiser campaign to keep killer drivers off our roads for longer

Laws making it harder for killer drivers to get back behind the wheel as part of The Advertiser’s Road to Justice campaign would be supported by South Australia’s Opposition.

Kyam Maher says the opposition supports tougher driver disqualification laws for killer drivers. Picture: AAP/David Mariuz

Laws making it harder for killer drivers to get back behind the wheel of a car would be supported by South Australia’s Opposition.

Labor would also back giving more help to victims’ families, particularly children.

In the lead up to parliament resuming early next month, the party is holding internal discussions about reforms proposed by The Advertiser and victims’ families in the Road to Justice campaign.

Legal affairs spokesman Kyam Maher, who is the leader of the Opposition in the state’s Upper House, said his party supports “in principle” three of the six proposed reforms.

“The Opposition understands the concerns many victims’ families have in this area,” he said.

“Labor supports in principle things that will give better support to victims.”

“Labor also supports in principle moves that would make it harder for people facing serious charges, or convicted of death by dangerous driving, to get back behind a wheel of a car.”

The three proposals the party agrees “in principle” on are:

■ A minimum five-year licence disqualification, on top of the mandatory 10-year disqualification, for each life taken in a crash

■ Alleged killer drivers to be banned from the roads while on bail

■ The employment of specialist victim support officers to assist families, particularly children, of people killed in road crashes during the court process.

Mr Maher said the Opposition would hold further discussions on three other major reforms proposed by The Advertiser that relate to sentencing laws.

The main change proposed is a mandatory 10-year minimum term for the offence of aggravated causing death by dangerous driving.

“We will have a look at it – we are not ruling it out, but by no means are we throwing our support behind it,” Mr Maher said.

Key Upper House crossbencher Frank Pangallo, of the SA-BEST party, said he will “fully support” measures that lead to stiffer penalties and jail terms for killer drivers – including an end to the 93 per cent sentencing discount created by plea-bargaining.

“I will be asking the Attorney-General to review the current penalties and I will also be looking at amendments to existing legislation so that these killer drivers can’t exploit loopholes to reduce their sentences,” Mr Pangallo said.

“There are no ‘discounts’ for the families of victims who will continue to grieve and suffer emotionally, psychological and economically from their loss.”

Mr Pangallo even suggested a possible push for a lifetime driving ban for the “most heinous” offenders.

“Magistrates and judges can only interpret the law as they see it and of course each case may be different,” he said.

“However, it is up to the parliament to make those laws that better reflect community expectation and I shall be working towards that.”

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman would not say if the State Government intends to support any of the changes proposed in the “Road to Justice” campaign.

“While minimum sentences can act as a deterrent to criminal behaviour, the legal system must be carefully designed so as to strike the correct balance between the severity of penalty and fairness,” she said in a statement.

“Not all death by dangerous driving offences, or aggravated causing death by dangerous driving offences, occur in the same circumstances, and each matter should be sentenced based off the severity of the offence, in the eyes of an independent and impartial judge.”

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