Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup has questioned whether proposed laws giving police the ability to breath test skippers should be a priority.
WA Police Minister Michelle Roberts announced this week that she and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti were working together to change laws to enable authorities to give random alcohol and drug tests to vessel operators.
However Mr Kirkup said while he believed it was important there were appropriate laws to ensure that skippers in charge of their vessels act responsibly, “there are other areas which could be focused on by this government before we go down that line”.
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“I believe everyone in the community would rather we get the right mix of police and resourcing levels in our community, and tackle the issues of drugs, antisocial behaviour and crime that exists throughout the region before we look at trying to figure out a way to breathalyse skippers,” he said.
“It's an important thing to look at and it exists in other jurisdictions but my concern and contention that especially in Mandurah, there are more pressing issues that the police and the government need to look at.
“Make sure that our police are resourced appropriately for the size of our community before we look at going down the line for what that might mean for recreational boat owners and skippers in the community.”
Currently, skippers in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland caught with a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.05 or with illicit drugs in their system face fines, suspension of their skippers’ ticket and possible jail time.
No details have been released of what penalties would look like if the law does come into play in WA, as it is still in the early stages.
However, the Police Minister said it “makes sense” that police are given the ability to breath test a skipper of a boat.
“Currently the law is inadequate; we've got effectively the worse laws in Australia for this situation,” Ms Roberts said.
“It means that police have to effectively do a sobriety test, and have good reason to proceed with any kind of charge, against someone who is a skipper they believe to be inebriated.
“We want police to be able to have the power to do that.
“There's also issues even post an incident with police's ability to be able to require people to give a breath test.”
Mr Kirkup also questioned the logistics of conducting random breath tests on skippers saying there were “a lot of complications” and “ a lot of expense” in implementing a system.
“Let's be clear, operating a vessel is no way near the same as driving a car,” he said.
“Are they going to operate a blockade on the estuary, and try and stop every single vessel and breathalyse them?
“When you have a number of people on board a vessel, who might hold recreational skippers tickets, who do you hold responsible? People switch who is the skipper all the time.
“There is a process to which police can monitor this and can bring about charges, if they need to, to skippers who they think are acting irresponsibly so I think personally, there are a lot of other priorities which exist in Mandurah.”
When asked what he would say to those who considered it to be different driving a boat to a vehicle, and therefore shouldn’t be breathalysed, Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said “that’s nonsense”.
“People who are in charge of vessels or vehicles have all got a responsibility to look after both themselves and others on the waterways so I welcome any government consideration about that.” he said.