It is high time Australia became Australia as far as consistency of Road Rules. The present variations between states and territories are confusing to say the least.
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I agree. Not just to save uncertainty but it will also be necessary when automatic cars inevitably get rolled out in the decades to come.
I also agree with egker, I find it annoying that what is considered normal, i.e. legal, in some States and Territories is totally illegal in another State. A prime example being U-turns at traffic lights: in NSW it is illegal, and there are signs at many traffic lights to remind drivers of this fact, yet in many States and ACT, it is legal and only at locations where it is _not_allowed is it signed.
Another source of confusion is school zones, there is no common way of dealing with these (signs etc) and quite different times when they apply!
I thought there had been a national reconciliation of road rules so that the idiosyncratic rules were removed?
I have driven through eleven different countries in Europe (including UK and Irish Republic) and I found less differences between these countries than the five States and two territories in NSW (not been to Tassie yet)! On continental Europe I the really only had the occasional minor difficulty with signs as, except for a few, they were symbolic _and_common across countries!
So, if the Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians, Poles, Slovakians, Czechs and Hungarians can get over their parochialism, why is it not possible in Australia with one language??
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Full agreement.
We used to live close to the ACT/NSW border, and then lived for a year on a road where one side way was in Qld, and the other side of the road was NSW! We still live close to the Qld/NSW border, but not right on it.
Often there is no indication that you have crossed from one state to another. You are expected to know that you have, and then adhere to the appropriate road and parking rules.
What a state of confusion!
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We came here from NZ 17 years ago, and could not believe what a screwup the australians had made of their country, this ludicrous federation situation with every state having totally different rules & laws was incomprehensible then and still is today. We are convinced they are brain damaged.
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I would like to see at least one tier of government completely demolished. Get rid of the State governments and just have the local governments, who report to a Senator in Canberra. WE WOULD SAVE HEAPS IN PUBLIC SERVICE WAGES and there would be only one government department for Health, Drivers Licences (all road rules would be the same Australia wide) and taxation. For a population the size of Australia there should be only one government department for all.
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Just saw this article from NRMA which is relevant. It is to do with the variety of restricted speed limits for L and P plate drivers around Australia.
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Hi There, Thanks for responding and sharing this information. The mind truly boggles as to the stupidity of these variances. Bad enough having to watch for the different zones in your own state without going interstate to find it all different. Probably not a bad revenue raiser though!!!
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I agree that consistency would be a good thing. It just make sense.
But this would require agreement between all the States and Territories as our Constitution gives limited power to Government at a Federal Level to exercise control. We encountered this after WW2 when we started to build the Snowy Hyrdro Scheme. The solution was to put that project under our federal Defence budget to eliminate bickering between State Politicians. Actually, there is currently conflict between Scott Morison and the NSW State Govt. over the sale of our electricity assets. Politicians would never agree!
The extra time required to actually get a nationwide agreement on anything could have adverse effects. For example: Amending laws regarding drink driving that vary state-to-state sooner, might be better than waiting possibly years for a nationwide strategy to be implemented while lives are lost.
Why report to a senator that is as likely to be as arrogant, self serving, partisan, and motivated by his/her/party self interest as anyone? Some of the councils would thrive while some would sink into partisan bickering, but having them report to a higher up partisan? Dismantle the states, but have the local councils operated under a public service umbrella to protect localities from distant politically motivated meddling or retribution.
When we were convinced nothing could happen re uniform rules since all the states and territories each already had it perfect, a surprise is coming, albeit at the speed each state and territory thinks appropriate 
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