Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Drivers licences

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:23): (425) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Government Services, and it relates to the trial of digital drivers licences in Ballarat. The action I seek is: can the minister release a report on the success or otherwise of the pilot program to date and ensure that that report is made public to the community, particularly my Ballarat community? I know that the minister was in Ballarat recently and he was there spruiking that 2500 people have become part of this trial. Just as a reminder, 2500 people represent a little bit under 2 per cent of the population of Ballarat. Now, I would have thought that that is not a great figure, given this trial has been very, very widely advertised. You would hope that it was at least maybe 5 or 10 per cent, if not more, of the population. However, I can probably understand why.

At the end of June this year a problem occurred whereby those who signed up to be part of the pilot program were actually issued with false names. As reported in the media, one woman whose surname is Steers posted a message from VicRoads on social media revealing that the agency had addressed her as ‘Ms Senanayakage’. Another woman whose surname is Guna said that the last name that had been given to her was ‘Car’. The poor bloke who had to come out and explain all this stuff from VicRoads had a last name of Tillotson. I think that is the correct last name at least. He blamed that on a technical error. All of these 2500 people that have signed up have had a technical error on their last name. Maybe it is an evolving promise; I do not know. We do not know what is going on.

I really need to be clear about this: I am not necessarily against digital drivers licences, but I am against them when they are botched in this way and you cannot even get someone’s name right when they sign up. I would like to quote the minister when they came out to Ballarat – Minister Pearson. He said:

The pilot is going really well and we thank the residents of Ballarat for getting involved …

How is it going really well? Minister Horne, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, had a bit to say as well, and she said:

Victorians have asked for a digital driver licence and that’s why this Ballarat trial is such an important step.

They might have asked for a digital licence, but they did not ask for it to be –

A member: Bungled.

Joe McCRACKEN: Bungled, basically. The member for Wendouree – we love the member for Wendouree – said that:

The digital driver licence will make life simpler on several fronts …

Well, how is it simpler if you get the names of people that have signed up wrong? It just does not make any sense. I would love to see the minister actually show us this report, show us the success of this trial to date, so we can make an assessment in the Ballarat community of whether it has been right or not.