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Do double demerit points apply to you?

Charley Boorman congratulates MBW on copping a speed warning! speed fine police demerit
Charley Boorman congratulates MBW on copping a speed warning!

Double demerit points apply in certain holidays in NSW, the ACT and WA, but do they apply to the licences of riders from other states?

Unfortunately the answer is not a simple yes or no.

There is no double demerit system in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, Northern Territory and South Australia.

If you are a rider from those states passing through NSW, ACT or WA during a declared holiday period, then the double points will not apply.

Queensland is different

However, Queensland riders should note that in certain circumstances the double points will apply.

The law in Queensland is that double points do apply to speeding offences of 21km/h or greater over the speed limit and seatbelt offences if they occur more than once within a 12 month period.Police cops speed speeding sensation annual demerit

Lawyer Stephen Hayles of Macrossan and Amiet Solicitors says he has been asked by clients about the system after copping a fine in an applicable state.

“For example if you commit two speeding offences of driving 21km/hr over the speed limit in a 12 month period, you will be allocated 4 demerit points for the first offence and 4 demerit points for the second offence plus an additional 4 demerit points,” he says.

“This means that you will have accumulated 12 demerit points within a 12 month period and you risk having your licence suspended.”

Double demerit periods

Double points apply in NSW and ACT over the Australia Day weekend, Easter, Anzac Day, Queen’s Birthday, Labour Day and Christmas/New Year (from December 21 2018).

In WA, the double points apply on Australia Day (unless it falls on a week day), Labour Day, Easter, Anzac Day (unless it falls on a week day), Western Australia Day, Queen’s Birthday, and Christmas/New Year.NSW police blitz demerit

How demerit points are recorded

If a rider in another state commits a traffic offence in a state during a double point period, the offence is recorded as a double demerit offence on their traffic history in the state where the offence happened.

The state licensing authority will then report the offence to the transport department in your state who will record the offence on your traffic history.

However, the double points will only apply in Queensland under the circumstances described above.

Choice of penalty

Stephen says that if you have committed a traffic offence recently and you receive a Queensland Transport notice that you have accumulated your allowed demerit points, you will have a choice of a good driving behaviour period or a licence suspension for a period.

“When considering whether to agree to a good behaviour driving behaviour period and a licence suspension, it is important that a licence holder understands that accepting a suspension of their licence may preclude them from making an Application for a Special Hardship Order or an Application for a Restricted (Work) Licence for the next five years,” he warns.

If you are unsure about how many demerit points you have, you can search your record online at your state’s transport department website or call them and request a copy of your traffic history.

  1. The whole system is a joke, but one where the peasants don’t seem to care. Peasants. Lemmings. Sheep. Whatever we collectively are …

    2 billion dollars a year in traffic fine revenue, or thereabouts. Double demerits are but one tactic used to try and paint a thin cheap coat of credibility over government revenue raising so the majority don’t see it for what it is …

  2. Okay, a few years back in NSW, I was travelling on Fri 27 Jan and detected through a school zone doing 68 km hr. It was 70km out of school zone hours. It was a zone that had flashing school zone lights. They were not in operation at the time. There was no person in sight. Not a single school kid, parent vehicle, lollypop person, school bus, nada. Kids still hadn’t returned to school for the new year at that stage because of where the Australia Day long weekend was. I’m pretty sure no kid in Australia attended on Friday 27th. They returned for the new year on Monday. But sure enough two weeks later I received a double demerit points long weekend penalty notice in the mail. That itself is a contradiction. If it was a long weekend, then why was it a school zone? I took it to my local state rep…to no avail…much bigger business going on..I was chicken feed..I wrote a letter of appeal…backed it up by calling the school to confirm no child attended and also called main roads to ascertain whether there were any outages to the flashing school zone lights. And there were not. I contacted the department who said it was in a process. I enquired as to the 28day payment notice..they said further penalties would incur if it wasn’t payed. They didn’t mention it would be held in abeyance until processed. The due day grew nearer..I called again..to no avail. It jumped from one customer service officer to another. I was about to head away on deployment with the defence force at the time..so regretfully payed it. Two days later a letter arrived saying basically by paying it, I admitted liability to the traffic offence. That is just one example of payed incompetence during that time period. I have totaly lost my faith.

  3. Isn’t it time for common sense re school zones in our area we have a section of road that is not used by school children walking /parents dropping off,
    and it was in the local paper that the section of road will have the signs removed.
    That was 12 months ago signs still there!

    Something else has been on my mind with driverless cars! (heaven forbid Motorcycle riderless????) if you are traveling in one reading your emails etc and there is an accident, and your car is made out to be the cause do you get booked or what?

  4. First thing you do when you get a turd in the mail is write to the relevant processing authority with a legally worded brief as to why you either don’t deserve it how wrong it is or what mitigating factors there are and request that if they can’t wave or cancel the turd to take it to court.
    This can achieve one of three things , run out the clock and trigger a statute of limitations, the almost impossible or a cancellation of the offence, a lot more time to get your ducks in a row or it at least gets your side in front of the judge so there is more to go on than the police side of things. This can be really beneficial because even if the offence doesn’t get struck off the judge may negate the points or halve the fine or both of course it helps if you don’t have a crap record to start with.

  5. Most of us who have heard of an autobahn know that going fast is not the same as speeding.
    Speeding occurs at any velocity grater than what is safe for the circumstances regardless of what the speed limit may be. You can be speeding in a one hundred zone doing sixty if the circumstances are that you should be going thirty. Yet the nannies all scream and carry on about speed kills and the revenue junkies froth at the mouth druelling at the thought of a holiday cash bonanza.
    Yet has anyone done the sums on harm versus gain when it comes to such over enforcement of speed limits? On an autobahn the only rules enforced are those that keep snails out of the passing lanes and other such ignorant behaviours.
    Traffic flows and if no idiots or mechanical failures happen there are no accidents. This makes autobahns the safest roads in the world. Yet we have road safety policy’s that not only don’t weed out the idiots it seems to manufacture more. So I ask what is the cost of this revenue hunting? If the roads were actually made safer by better education and traffic flow wouldn’t the cost saving in everything from reduced transport,insurance, time loss , stress and the much reduced trauma and rehabilitation of people no longer being hurt in such volumes vastly out strip the petty amount of revenue?

    1. I wouldn’t like the state of some of the cars here in QLD to be on “unlimited” roads doing those kind of speeds. Not needing to get a pink slip like in NSW when you renew your rego, the amount of cars that are unsafe would be phenomenal.

      The amount of bald tyres I see on cars everyday is astounding.

  6. Why is there no transport ombudsman? If there is, where do we find said creature?
    We seem to have them for other poorly behaved enterprises.
    Can you take it to the “office of fair trading” seeing that o’l mate got totally ripped off even though it was a long weekend for the school kids, by extension he paid for something that was a blatant rip of?
    Just a thought. Cheers

  7. Hate to point out that Victoria does have double demerit points during some long weekends

    1. Hi phillip,
      Not sure where you are getting your information from, but Victoria has never had double demerit points.
      That fact was backed up by information supplied to us from both VicPol and VicRoads.
      Cheers,
      Mark

  8. I fight every fine in court and win. Schoolzones, fixed cam, parking all won, still no points for me. The SDRO loses all claim to it once you elect for court. Don’t waste time appealing on the form they ALWAYS reject and yes paying is admission of guilt as is apologising. If you call in sick on the court day you can get more time and it costs the parasites more too.
    Have a look at notfinebyme.com
    Always plead not guilty unless you actually did commit the crime, even if you did and must plead guilty you can give reasons and the judge can give you a section 10 (mitigating circumstances) but beware pleading guilty as the fine tends to be equal to the court costs plus losing the day waiting around the courts, even though you can get out of the points.

  9. IF all fines were contested and EVERYONE requested the matter to go to court, the ‘revenue raising system’ would eventually collapse, they simply could not hear every case in court it would take YEARS, therefore they would be forced to either amend laws, spend more on courts or stop issuing fines for trivial matters. Revenue raising via fines has NOTHING TO DO WITH SAFETY. The government includes in every years budget the amount they expect to raise from fines, they simply rely on it as an income, again nothing to do with safety. I contest every fine!

  10. Great example the other day of the cynicism behind the “safety” aspect. Well after dusk in South Gippsland, Vic, and there’s a police car sitting in the turning lane in the middle of the road with the radar gun pointed at oncoming traffic (just round a corner, no street-lighting which made the car harder to see, no visible temporary warning sign, though there was a fixed warning sign about speed cameras being used in the area some KMs earlier) … totally ignoring cars passing with no headlights on. The cars without headlights … presenting a real danger to other motorists, but no revenue opportunity…

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