Guide to Road Rules
Roads, road rules, road laws, transport, traffic, etc. fall under the control of the individual States and Territories. This means that laws and regulations differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction across Australia. That said, for years now the National Transport Commission and the Australian Transport Council have encouraged the states to implement a single set of laws so that all states and territories across the nation would enforce the same rules to a large degree. A set of rules known as the Australian Road Rules was created by the National Transport Commission in 1999. Although the Australian Road Rules document on its own has no legal effect, each State has passed laws that have the effect of making the Rules law in that State. This occurs in a similar way to how the Commonwealth Parliament passes laws that adopt and give effect to United Nations Charters and International Treaties without those charters or treaties having to be reproduced afresh by parliament in its own piece of legislation. In Victoria, the Road Rules were published in the Government Gazette in October 1999. Regulations made under the Road Safety Act then incorporated the gazetted document into the laws of the State. Similar processes happened around the same time in other states.
Most States (being NSW, Victoria, South Australia, A.C.T., Northern Territory and Tasmania) have enacted legislation which simply adopts the whole of the contents of the Australian Road Rules document as a State law, while Qld has preferred to pass legislation which reproduces each of the Rules as a separate Regulation or law. In 2000 Western Australia amended its traffic regulations to make them more consistent with the national scheme. The result is that since 2000 all States and Territories have passed legislation which make the majority of road laws common throughout Australia. Although the National Transport Commission updates its version of the Australian Road Rules from time to time, this does not mean that each State and Territory updates its laws at the same time or at all. For example, Victorian legislation currently adopts the 1999 version of the ARR as law in that State, subject to some amendments. Sometimes it can be a difficult task to determine the currency of the laws in each State because they do not automatically and simultaneously pass the updated NTC version of the ARR into law.
Therefore a list of the Acts and Regulations which make up the bulk of the general offences of the roads around Australia has been compiled. They are listed below by state. In general the regulations will contain the offences themselves.
All information is provided through links to Australasian Legal Information Institute (or AUSTLII for short). This is a free legal database used by those in the profession of law or the general public. Remember the law is fluid, so laws will change from time to time, however AUSTLII update very regularly.
Please note: This is not legal advice. If you require legal advice you should consult a lawyer. The above links are merely a guide. This is not an exhaustive list but is a guide to those who have a question relating to a road rule in their state.
Thanks to Break the Cycle for his work in compiling this list and information.
Contents |
QLD
TRANSPORT OPERATIONS (ROAD USE MANAGEMENT) ACT 1995
TRANSPORT OPERATIONS (ROAD USE MANAGEMENT--ROAD RULES) REGULATION 1999
NSW
ROAD TRANSPORT (GENERAL) REGULATION 2005
VIC
ROAD SAFETY (GENERAL) REGULATIONS 1999
ROAD SAFETY (ROAD RULES) REGULATIONS 1999
SA
ROAD TRAFFIC (ROAD RULES--ANCILLARY AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) REGULATIONS 1999
WA
TAS
TRAFFIC (ROAD RULES) REGULATIONS 1999 (also here)
NT
Note that section 71 also enforces the 'Australian Road Rules' as set in schedule 3 except where stated.
ACT
Use links found at the link below to find the laws or offences you require (e.g. use the link to Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 to find general offences such as speeding and the use of radar detectors).
ROAD TRANSPORT (GENERAL) ACT 1999 - SECT 6
![[Main Page]](http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/skins/common/images/wiki.png)