The investigative powers in the national truck law should be simplified and streamlined, ATA Chair Noelene Watson said today.

Mrs Watson was releasing the ATA’s submission to the NTC review of the investigative and enforcement powers in the Heavy Vehicle National Law.

“In the ATA’s view, the inconsistent investigative powers in the law will inevitably lead to confusion and challenges to the admissibility of evidence,” Mrs Watson said.

“The problems created by these inconsistencies will only come to light fully when an injustice is done to someone in the industry or a prosecution fails because of technical legal issues. Neither outcome is acceptable to the ATA, so it needs to be fixed now.

“Our submission recommends that the information gathering powers in the HVNL should be simplified and streamlined.

“In addition, we recommend that all of the investigative powers in the law should be subject to a codified warning provision.

“Enforcement officers already have an obligation to warn people under investigation of their rights and obligations. The inclusion of a codified provision in the law would clarify this requirement and help enforcement agencies provide better training to their staff.”

Mrs Watson urged the NTC to look at amending the law to provide more support to cross-border chain of responsibility investigations.

“From the ATA’s perspective, a key part of the case for establishing the NHVR was to enable chain of responsibility investigations to be carried out seamlessly across state borders.

“But the discussion paper reports that investigations still tend to be confined to only one state or territory.

“The submission recommends that the NTC should look at amending the law to fix this, as well as supporting better administrative protocols between the states and territories,” she said.

Read the ATA submission

Media contact:  Donna Jeremiah 0417 211 441 or Anne Nguyen 0487 904 111