New Road Traffic Act Fuels Push for Efficient Governance

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, says provisions in the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2025, complement the Government’s broad goals of modernising and enforcing traffic management by enhancing administrative efficiency.

Piloting the legislation in the Senate recently, Minister Johnson Smith said the legislation resolves existing inefficiencies associated with a paper-based licence and registration system and facilitates more robust interagency data sharing.

The Bill, among other things, provides for the electronic issuance of fitness and registration certificates.

She said the approach aligns with international trends, as physical decals and paper-based documents are costly, inefficient and are on the verge of becoming obsolete globally.

“It will also allow us to make better use of the technology with which we have been effectively equipping our police. As you know, significant improvements have been made in this regard; and so the information available to our members of the constabulary, as they are on the road enforcing traffic matters, has also similarly significantly improved,” the Minister added.

Senator Kamina Johnson Smith clarified that the proposed amendments will not affect the current treatment of insurance certificates.

“That falls under a different Act, and there has to be further consultation with the insurance sector about how that information would be shared to allow for electronic verification of that matter. So right now, we are concerned with fitness and licensing.

“The amendments not only modernise the Government’s processes but, perhaps more importantly, they benefit motorists by providing longer periods of certificate validity and they also reduce the cost to operators. The amendments will allow savings to be experienced by motorists,” she said.

Senator Johnson Smith noted that this is the Government’s first Streamlining Processes for Efficiency and Economic Development (SPEED) initiative.

“It’s the first collaboration on the review of Government processes as to what can be done more quickly, less expensively and with more thought of the citizens’ ease in mind,” she said.

The Bill seeks to create new periods of validity of the fitness and registration certificate for all categories of motor vehicles, enhance administrative efficiency and modernise road-user management by applying Section 129 of the Act.

The removal of physical licence decals and the requirement to present fitness and registration certificates upon demand will eliminate the associated penalties.

Among the provisions in the Bill is Clause Three, which will amend Section Seven, primarily to remove the mandatory requirement for the drivers to provide evidence of the motor-vehicle registration and fitness certificates for inspection upon demand by a constable.

Consequently, a driver will not be penalised for not providing documents related to motor-vehicle registration and fitness for inspection and, as such, the related offence expressed in Subsection Three of the principal Act is removed.

Clause Six anchors the main provisions relating to the new validity period for the motor-vehicle registration.

Specifically, Subsection One of Section 14 of the principal Act is amended to make provisions for a motor-vehicle licence, which may be granted for a period of 24 months, 20 months or six months, as the case may be.

This, commencing from the first day of the month in which the licence first takes effect.

Other members contributing to the debate were Government Senator, Abja Fitz-Henley, and Opposition Senators, Damion Crawford, Sophia Fraser Binns, and Lambert Brown.