Labor plan to give safe drivers a demerit point back each year

A proposed overhaul of NSW’s demerit point system by the Labor party could see drivers who have racked up demerit points be able to get rid of them faster. Here’s how the process could work. Vote in our poll.

Demerit points will expire faster for safe drivers who avoid traffic infringements if Chris Minns wins the March election.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Labor will overhaul the demerit points scheme to reward safe driving, in a bid to win over thousands of drivers who have been stung for low-range offences by secret mobile speed cameras.

The Labor scheme – which would start as a trial this year – would remove a demerit point every year from drivers’ records, if they keep their driving record clean.

That means a driver who copped a low-range speeding fine and one demerit point in 2022 could have that demerit point expunged at the end of 2023, as long as they avoid any new offences.

Currently, demerit points usually take three years to be removed from drivers’ licences.

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The changes are designed to give drivers an incentive to drive safely in a bid to reduce the road toll.

It comes after a huge spike in drivers being fined – and copping demerit points – for low range speeding offences after warning signs from mobile speed cameras were removed.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns will introduce the trial if he is elected.

Anecdotally, the secret mobile speed cameras led to thousands of drivers being fined on the roads for the first time.

More than 621,000 people were fined $81.6 million for low range speeding offences since mobile speed camera warning signs were removed in November 2020. 

Almost 250,000 fines (and associated demerit points) were issued for low range speeding from mobile speed cameras alone in 2022 alone, until the end of November.

Drivers have also reported cameras being placed at the bottom of hills and where road speed limits change.

Removing signs on NSW’s mobile speed cameras saw an uptick in fines.

Cameras were also found hiding behind trees, forcing government intervention from Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward to stop the practice.

Labor Leader Chris Minns told the Telegraph that his proposal will reward drivers doing the right thing.

“Under the Labor the rules are simple – drive safely, get a point back.”

“One death on our roads is one death too many. But after a number of deaths already recorded this holiday period, we need a new approach,” he said.

Labor’s Roads spokesman John Graham said the measures would use “the carrot, as well as the stick,” to make roads safer.

The demerit point trial expands upon existing rewards for safe drivers, which include a 50 per cent reduction in the cost of renewing a licence for anyone who keeps a clean record for five years.

The Labor trial also includes a reduced fee for drivers’ licences to be renewed if they don’t rack up any demerit points for five years. Picture: Jeremy Piper

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury welcomed a trial allowing safe drivers to lose demerit points faster.

“NSW has one of the most comprehensive enforcement programs in the world, and that’s important, but we also know encouraging and rewarding good driver behaviour can help improve road safety.”

The trial was also welcomed by Engadine resident Nicholas Capovilla, who was fined twice in two days last year for driving 43km/h and 37km/h in a 30km/h zone outside Liverpool hospital.

Nicholas Capovilla from Engadine had a clean driving record and had never had an offence until June 2022 when he was stung twice by a speed camera in the Liverpool 30km trial zone. Picture: Jonathan Ng

He was visiting his partner and newborn son in the NICU at the hospital at the time.

Alongside “astronomical” fines, he said he incurred nine demerit points for the two offences.

Mr Capovilla is contesting the fines, which were the only time he has ever been fined for a road offence.

He said the trial “would definitely be an incentive for drivers because of the reward they would receive at the end of it”.

“Drivers would be more focused on the road and understand that there is a reward for their good behaviour,” he said.