There are fears P-platers who live in Victoria, but use a loophole to get a NSW driver’s licence at 17, may be caught up in new laws to punish unlicensed drivers who cause a death on the road.
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The Victorian government on Wednesday night approved the new crime of causing death or serious injury while driving unlicensed.
The onus will be on drivers without a licence to prove they were not driving dangerously, rather than police having to produce the evidence.
Changing the law was supported by the Labor Party, despite a cross-party committee of MPs finding it clashed with the legal presumption of innocence.
Benambra MP Bill Tilley was deputy chair of the committee and raised concerns at a inquiry hearing last month when speaking to Melbourne Law School Professor Jeremy Gans.
He questioned what would happen to Victorian P-platers who were caught out using a false address to obtain a NSW licence.
“If a young driver (with a NSW licence) driving in Victoria is involved in a crash involving a fatality, probably the current status quo would be that that young driver would possibly be charged with making a false declaration,” Mr Tilley said.
“Or with unlicensed driving if that was applicable in that situation,” Professor Gans replied.
“If they are picked up by Victorian law, then the only issue is would there be any legality about them obtaining the licence in NSW.”
Mr Tilley said that interpretation would be the test.
The new law has been dubbed “Jalal's law” after the community lobbying for change over the death of 13-year-old boy Jalal Yassine-Naja, who was killed while skateboarding in March last year.
