What triggered the review of Western Australia’s graduated licensing system (GLS)?
A review of WA’s GLS was a recommendation of the State Government’s Road Safety Roundtable held in September 2024 to address an increase in WA’s road deaths and the rate of young people being killed and injured on WA roads.
WA road statistics show that the 17 to 19 years age group had the highest age-specific rate of death and serious injury at 107 per 100,000 people in the five-year period between 2019 and 2023.
Research tells us that young people are safest while they are on their learner’s permit, however the first few years of solo driving on a provisional licence are the riskiest (Figure 1). As young people mature and their brains develop fully, these risky behaviours tend to reduce.
Figure 1: Learner and provisional driver road crash statistics
A comprehensive and evidence-based Graduated Licensing System is one of the most effective measures to mitigate these risks. It exposes learner drivers to progressively more complex driving demands under the supervision of experienced drivers, ensuring that driving experience is gained in a controlled and safe environment. There has been a substantial reduction in fatalities among the 15-24 years age group since the introduction of Graduated Licensing System models in all jurisdictions.
How does WA’s GLS currently stack up against other jurisdictions?
WA’s current GLS includes best practice measures in many aspects of the learn to drive journey such as the minimum learner age of 16 and minimum provisional licence age of 17, nighttime driving and passenger restrictions for red P plate drivers and blood alcohol concentration limit limits during the learner and provisional periods.
The consultation paper considers strengthening other measures in WA’s GLS to align with other jurisdictions and improve safety for WA learner and provisional drivers.
These measures include longer learner and provisional driver periods, increased supervised logbook hours for learners, improved access to theory and hazard perception tests, zero blood alcohol concentration for supervising drivers and mobile phone restrictions for the length of the entire provisional driver phase.
Is there a national GLS framework?
The GLS is based on the national Policy Framework, which has three Graduated Licensing System models: standard, enhanced, and exemplar. All Australian jurisdictions have adopted the national framework, with each jurisdiction introducing their own unique mix of elements from across these models.
WA has adopted most of the elements of the standard model and two exemplar elements, nighttime driving restrictions, and the more recently introduced passenger restrictions for P1 (red P plate) provisional drivers – Red Plate, One Mate.
The following colour coding system is used to visually show where WA sits in relation to other Australian jurisdictions.
