March 2010 In NSW, learner drivers are required to complete 120 hours of supervised driving practice before they can sit for their P-plates; a requirement many young people feel they are not able to meet. To address this issue, YAPA and the University Of Technology, Sydney (UTS) are collaborating on a project, Driving You Crazy, aimed at empowering young people to speak out and take action on the issues facing young drivers in NSW. Four Youth Research Volunteers are being recruited from urban, metropolitan, regional and rural NSW, and will receive professional training in research. YAPA will support the volunteers in implementing the skills they learn to collect data from their peers and to contribute to a research report. Volunteers will also receive training and support in how to advocate on behalf of young drivers.
May 2010 Four Youth Research Volunteers have been recruited for Driving You Crazy – the Young Driver Research Project. We were pleased to have young people from rural, regional and metropolitan NSW represented in the project. YAPA coordinated a two-day training session for the young researchers in Sydney over the Easter break. This was an enormous success, with all young researchers working really hard to learn all the tricks of the trade. The project has now reached the next step, with all young researchers starting to run focus groups and interviews in their hometowns. We look forward to hearing back about the thoughts and experiencing of young drivers in the coming months.
June 2010 The four Youth Researchers recruited to take part in the ‘Driving You Crazy’ project are busy conducting interviews and focus groups with young people about their experiences of going for their licence. The Youth Researchers will send through the data they collect to YAPA over the coming months, which will contribute towards a report on young driver issues.
October 2010 The four Youth Researchers recruited to take part in the Driving You Crazy project have collected their data, and most of it has made its way back into YAPA hands for analysis. A preliminary reading of the data reveals some really interesting issues, many of which confirm the findings from the 2009 YAPA Driving You Crazy survey. YAPA also collected data on young driver issues at the YAPA youth festival, SHIFT THIS 2010. Stay tuned.
December 2010 The data collected from the Driving You Crazy project and the consultation at Shift This 2010 are being collated into a report. The preliminary findings have already been used to prepare various media releases and inform discussions with relevant decision makers. The final report will be ready at the end of the January.
120 learner hours victory!
April-May 2011 Since the NSW Government announced in late 2006 its intentions to drastically increase supervised learner requirements to 120 hours, YAPA and its supporters have been campaigning against the impacts of this change on struggling young people and families.
After forewarning policy makers of the likely impacts, YAPA undertook a series of research projects to show the detrimental effect this well-intentioned strategy was having upon the livelihoods of some of the state's most disadvantaged young families. Over four years of campaign work later, we’ve finally convinced the current ALP government to change the laws to balance fairness against the road safety we all want for NSW young people.
From mid-2010, YAPA lobbied the offices of the Premier and the Minister for Youth to place this issue high on their policy agenda, and our research findings resulted in the establishment of a working party comprising staff of the Premier and the Minister for Roads. As the Sunday Telegraph first reported on 9 January 2011, “the Government was concerned at claims by the Youth Action and Policy Association NSW that some struggling families were misrepresenting the hours in their children’s logbooks out of desperation.”
The changes will see a reduction in 20 hours for all young people (ensuring those who cannot access training get at least some relief), provide 6,000 disadvantaged young people with government sponsored access to ten hours of triple counted driving school training, meaning these and many other young people using driving schools will only do a more reasonable 80 hours.
The YAPA team knows there are a number of services that have supported young people to break through the barriers to getting their licence, so we are delighted the package includes $1.2 million annually for services that make cars or supervisors available to disadvantaged learner drivers.
We acknowledge and thank all for the support we have had behind us in our research and our campaigns in real life and on the Facebook “Lose the 120 hours for Learners” page, as well as those working alongside us and in parallel.
We hope that the result of the NSW election does not change what has been a fantastic outcome for all involved.
