2015/21: Should the driving age in Australia be lowered?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:On September 20, 9 News Perth telecast a report on the difficulty young people in Western Australia were experiencing In gaining their drivers’ licences and some of the factors contributing to this. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said...
'Many young people that only have public transport to depend on are being very disadvantaged; this, of course, can be relieved by lowering the driving age...'
Khalid Issa, 17-year-old Victorian high school student
'A 17 year old driver with a P1 licence is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver over 26 years'
The Young Driver Fact Base
The issue at a glance
On November 29, 2015, Victorian state MP James Purcell announced his intention to put up a motion in Parliament's upper house to hold an inquiry into lowering Victoria's driving age.
On December 9, 2015, Mr Purcell put the motion to the house.
The pressure to lower the driving age is greatest in Victoria as it is the Australian state with the highest driving age. Only in Victoria does a young person have to be 18 before he or she can be awarded a provisional drivers' licence.
However, there have periodically been suggestions from a number of jurisdictions that the driving age be made as low as 16, the legal driving age in the Northern Territory.
Despite intermittent agitation, especially in Victoria, for a lowering of the driving age, there are a number of road safety groups that have disputed such a move, claiming it would increase accidents and fatalities on Australian roads.
Australian state governments do not currently appear about to institute such a change. However, the pressure for this is unlikely to disappear, particularly from country regions where access to public transport can be very limited.