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October 14, 2025 4 mins

Isn’t it weird that, in the past 25 years, we have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on road safety campaigns, but there have, generally, been no changes in that time to the penalties handed out for bad and dangerous driving? 

I tried to find out exactly how much has been spent, but I realised that was quite ambitious. 

Nevertheless, I can safely say that it’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, ChatGPT reckons it’s somewhere between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion. It’s probably way more than that. 

Either way, we’ve spent billions over the past 25 years trying to make people aware of the consequences of bad and dangerous driving, but many of the fines and penalties for drivers breaking the law haven’t changed. And the AA wants that rectified. 

I’m not saying don’t do it, but I’m not convinced that that would make much difference when it comes to what actually happens on the roads and how drivers behave. 

Aside from the money spent on road safety campaigns, let’s also not forget the gazillions spent on cleaning up the mess after road crashes. 

ACC, hospital costs, ongoing care for people – it’s estimated that that comes to about $10 billion a year. 

So, in the past 25 years, billions have been spent trying to educate drivers and dealing with the consequences of road crashes. But in that time, not much has changed when it comes to penalties. 

Which is why the AA’s road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen is saying today that, at the very least, fines should be doubled across the board to make up for inflation, and fines automatically adjusted for inflation on an ongoing basis. 

He says: "We need to bring these penalties back up so they work to make drivers think twice about taking risks on the road or breaking the rules because right now they're not doing that." 

I agree that they’re not working, but I don’t agree that harsher penalties would make a difference. Because when people are muppets out on the road, they don’t even think twice about the penalties, let alone the consequences. 

The AA thinks differently, and reckons the changes need to focus on the types of offences that cause the most carnage on the roads. 

Which are: people driving drunk or stoned, people not wearing seatbelts, people driving too fast, and people being distracted by things like mobile phones. 

Dylan Thomsen is saying that the AA, generally, wants fines to double but thinks the penalties for these particular offences might have to be increased more than that to really make a difference. 

The fine for using your phone while driving would certainly need to be more than doubled if we were to get anywhere close to the fines dished out in parts of Australia. 

In New South Wales, if you’re caught using your phone while driving, you’re fined $350 - or $470 if it’s in a school zone. In Western Australia, it’s a $1,000 fine. 

Here, it’s $150 and 20 demerit points. 

Dylan Thomsen points to a recent survey of AA members which found that most of them don’t think our fines are effective. Less than 50% said they thought the fines dished out for things like speeding and using a cellphone driving were tough enough to change behaviour. 

But do you really think harsher fines would change these behaviours? I don’t. 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
When you think about it, just every think about this.
When you think about it, isn't it weird that in
the past twenty five years we've spent millions and millions
and millions of dollars on road safety campaigns, but there
have generally been no changes in that time to the
penalty's handed out for bad and dangerous driving. Weird. I

(00:33):
tried to find out this morning exactly how much has
been spent on these road safety campaigns in that period
of time, but I realized pretty quickly that was quite ambitious.
But I can safely say that it is hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of millions and millions of dollars. In fact,
chat GPT reckons that somewhere between two point five billion

(00:54):
and three point five billion dollars. There's probably way more
than that. Either way. We have spent billions over the
past twenty five years trying to make people aware of
the consequence of bad and dangerous driving, which is the
carrot bit, but there's been no change to the stick
bit since nineteen ninety nine. Many of the fines and

(01:17):
penalties for drivers breaking the law haven't changed, and the
AA is saying today that it's time it does. Times
come for bigger fines and harsher penalties, and I would
like to agree. I mean, I'm not saying don't do it,
but I'm not about you. But I'm not convinced that

(01:38):
that would make much difference when it comes to what
actually happens on the roads and when it comes to
how drivers behave I mean, the AA does, I don't. Now.
Aside from the gazillion spent on road safety campaigns, let's
also not forget about the gazillion spent cleaning up the
mess after road crashes, acc hospital costs, ongoing care for people.

(02:03):
I mean, it's estimated that that alone comes to about
ten billion dollars a year. Let's just the money side
of it. So in the past twenty five years, billions
have been spent A trying to educate drivers and b
dealing with the consequences of road crashes. But in that
time not much has changed when it comes to penalties,
which is why the AA's road safety spokesperson Dylan Thompson

(02:26):
is saying today that at the very least they want
to see fines doubled across the board to make up
for inflation, and they want to see fines automatically adjusted
for inflation on an ongoing basis, because there's been no
change to most of the fines and penalties since nineteen
ninety nine, and to make people think twice before they

(02:46):
do stupid things on the road. So Dylan says, quote,
we need to bring these penalties back up so they
work to make drivers think twice about taking risks on
the road or breaking the rules, because right now they're
not doing that now. I agree. I agree the fines
and penalties aren't working, but I don't agree that harsher
penalties would make much of a difference, because I reckon

(03:09):
that when people are muppets out in the road, they
don't even think twice about the penalties, let alone the consequences.
The AA, though, thinks differently than me, and reckons the
changes need to focus, particularly on the types of offenses
that cause the most carnage on the roads, which are
people driving drunk or stoned, people not wearing seat belts,

(03:31):
people driving too fast, and people being distracted by things
like mobile phones. And Dylan Thompson saying today that the
AA generally wants fines to double, but he reckons that
the penalties for those particular offenses might have to be
increased by more than that to really make a difference,
or tell you what, the fine for using your phone
while driving would certainly need to be more than doubled

(03:53):
if we were to get anywhere close to the finess
dished out in Australia. You know about this New South
Wales might be news to you New South Wales if
you caught using your phone while driving three hundred and
fifty bucks or four hundred and seventy of it's in
a school zone. Western Australia, though, they really take the cake.
If you're caught using a phone while driving there, they'll
hit you with a one thousand dollar fine here one

(04:15):
hundred and fifty dollars and twenty demerit points and Dylan
Thompson says that is not good enough, and he points
to a recent survey of AA members which found that
most of them don't think our fines are effective. Less
than fifty percent said they thought the fines just charut
for things like speeding and using a cell phone driving
weren't tough enough to change behavior. And East saying today

(04:37):
the guard from the AA quote most similar countries have
tougher driving penalties than New Zealand and lower crash rates.
He says effective fines and penalties aren't the whole solution,
but they're an important part of it.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
For more from Caterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
to news talks It'd be christ Church from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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