Double demerits in force to midnight on Sunday night

devils_advocate said :

I thought double demerits were supposed to be for long weekends. Now it’s for weekends that follow any week with a public holiday in it, regardless of whether there’s a workday in between.

Defeats the purpose, IMO.

You’re right. Silly to change them around all the time. They should become a permanent feature.

itsallme said :

I don’t get this.

If you commit a crime, you get a penalty. If person A commits a crime and gets a penalty, then person B commits the exact same crime on a different day (assuming same circumstances, prior convictions, etc), shouldn’t they get the same penalty?

Why should one person get a higher penalty because they committed the crime on a different day that just happened to be during a holiday period?

How is it the gummint can just decide ‘hey, its gonna be busy on our roads, lets double the penalty for a previously legislated crime that had a previously legislated penalty’? We’ll make it legal by ensuring that we advertise it…

I can see the policy behind reducing deaths on our roads over holiday periods, but really, from the perspective of the criminal, shouldn’t they be treated equally like the other criminals that did the same thing? (yes, suggesting criminals have rights..even those horrible nasty criminals who go 2 kph over the speed limit…).

Originally demerit points were agreed between the states and territories at a national level so that interstate offences and local offences would both count towards driver licence suspension.

Then NSW, as a kneejerk to a bad easter road toll one year thought up double demerits but implemented it without checking with the other jurisdictions. So if their motorists get pinged for a double demerit offence in NSW, it only counts for standard points back home.

Except of course for the little old ACT which has slavishly followed what NSW did….

Ahhh I wondered why so many people were driving at 20kms under the limit and causing me inner road rage on the way to work today. I thought they started at midnight tonight.

EvanJames said :

Luckily, demerit points only apply if you are actually caught doing something bad. And so only speeding, drinking and seatbelts (oh, and mobile phones I guess) are affected. People can continue to tailgate, menace and behave like dicks with impunity.

Thanks. Will do. 😉

Luckily, demerit points only apply if you are actually caught doing something bad. And so only speeding, drinking and seatbelts (oh, and mobile phones I guess) are affected. People can continue to tailgate, menace and behave like dicks with impunity.

devils_advocate said :

I thought double demerits were supposed to be for long weekends. Now it’s for weekends that follow any week with a public holiday in it, regardless of whether there’s a workday in between.

Defeats the purpose, IMO.

I couldn’t tell you what the official determining factors are, but here we have a holiday period with an expectation of a significant increase in interstate traffic. Seems fair enough.

Of course if you learned to slow down for the speed cameras you wouldn’t have a care for double, triple, or quadruple demerits.

Fixed it for you.

I would have thought that if the double demerit point thing is meant to be a deterrent that they should also have double the fine.

I suppose the reason that they didn’t also double the fine is that too many people would whinge that it is just an excuse for the government to rake in more money.

devils_advocate said :

I thought double demerits were supposed to be for long weekends. Now it’s for weekends that follow any week with a public holiday in it, regardless of whether there’s a workday in between.

Defeats the purpose, IMO.

Goven how these things often work in Australia, many people are probably treating this as a four-day weekend. This ‘initiative’ just rolls with that expectation.

itsallme said :

I don’t get this.

If you commit a crime, you get a penalty. If person A commits a crime and gets a penalty, then person B commits the exact same crime on a different day (assuming same circumstances, prior convictions, etc), shouldn’t they get the same penalty?

Why should one person get a higher penalty because they committed the crime on a different day that just happened to be during a holiday period?

How is it the gummint can just decide ‘hey, its gonna be busy on our roads, lets double the penalty for a previously legislated crime that had a previously legislated penalty’? We’ll make it legal by ensuring that we advertise it…

I can see the policy behind reducing deaths on our roads over holiday periods, but really, from the perspective of the criminal, shouldn’t they be treated equally like the other criminals that did the same thing? (yes, suggesting criminals have rights..even those horrible nasty criminals who go 2 kph over the speed limit…).

Good point. If there’s a particular issue with holiday periods, just advertise the fact that there will be extra patrols/rbts etc on the roads (and back it up with an actual increased presence).

Oh wait, that would actually require allocating resources. Pinging people double for the same offence requires zero additional resources, so is clearly the better solution.