How Rbt Changed Our Lives
The Sun Herald
Saturday October 17, 1992
THE introduction of random breath testing in NSW a decade ago aroused a storm of protest which, to this day, seems extraordinary.
A few weeks after Caucus approved RBT in November 1982 a man yelled out"you bloody wog |" when RBT proponent George Paciullo MP was introduced at the Liverpool Speedway - in his own electorate.
The Pelican-Blacksmiths RSL Club near Newcastle felt so strongly it banned two local Labor MPs from its Christmas smoko.
The angry club - deep in Labor heartland - told then Federal Opposition Transport spokesman Peter Morris a limit of "four middies in a hour was an imposition on the working class".
NSW Australian Hotels Association president Barry McInerney fumed: "The apparent inaction by authorities in combating the dangerous non-drinking driver is an unfair attack on responsible, sane drinking drivers who pose absolutely no danger on the road."
RBT forced people to brutally re-assess their habits and their way of life and virtually every pub conversation in that spring and summer came around eventually to RBT.
Talk-back shows, newspaper columns and television current affairs programs were buzzing with the arguments.
RBT angered some powerful vested interests and sparked heated debates about civil liberties.
But that spring Mr Paciullo's most potent opponents were from within his own party.
CAUCUS held the key but its 69 members were hopelessly divided in the lead-up to the momentous vote of November 3, 1982.
By early 1982 the road toll had become a political problem for Premier Neville Wran's Government.
The broader political reality was becoming clearer: there was no more room on the roads for "sane drinking drivers".
Cabinet had reduced the blood-alcohol limit from 0.08pc to 0.05pc in November 1980 but the road toll was still averaging around 1,300 deaths a year.
In March 1982, Transport Minister Peter Cox proposed a committee to look at the road toll and the following month Mr Paciullo was elected chairman of the Standing Committee on Road Safety - or Staysafe - on which the Government had a 5-3 majority.
After several months of inquiry, Mr Paciullo and his committee became convinced RBT was vital to cutting the ever-mounting road toll.
Their report, tabled in Parliament on September 30, 1982, called for stiffer court penalties for drink-driving and the introduction of RBT. Cabinet was due to debate the issue the following month.
Mr Paciullo recalled yesterday: "I became aware about mid-year that there was strong opposition in Cabinet.
"One member of Cabinet said 'you'll get this through the Cabinet over my dead body'."
Mr Wran also knew Cabinet was deeply divided over the issue so he decided in early October to tip the issue by publicly announcing his support for RBT.
He said he wanted it introduced before Christmas when there would be a great upsurge in road deaths but ingenuously added, as was his habit, that he would not forecast Cabinet's decision.
DESPITE the concerted civil liberty objections of left-wing ministers such as Deputy Premier Jack Ferguson and Attorney-General Frank Walker (now a Federal MP), Cabinet approved a three-year trial for RBT on October 12.
Prisons Minister Rex Jackson reportedly was the most vehemently anti-RBT Cabinet member.
While Cabinet members were locked in behind RBT, Mr Paciullo's calculations showed that one-third of Caucus supported it, one-third was undecided and one-third was dead against it.
"At that time RBT was the subject in Macquarie Street, so after lunch or dinner I would go back to my room and jot down who was in favour or against,"Mr Paciullo said. "It didn't take long before I had a clear picture."
The Caucus opposition to RBT was split into three camps: the left wing, right wingers who represented the concerns of the liquor industry and a disparate group concerned about a working class and rural electoral backlash.
The Left's main protagonist was Maurie Keane, now executive director of the NSW Aboriginal Lands Council, who argued that RBT would set a precedent for"further intrusion on civil liberties" by the State.
But the registered clubs industry mounted the potentially most damaging campaign of lobbying and advertising against RBT and Mr Paciullo estimated the industry spent millions of dollars trying to block it.
After Mr Cox, seconded by Police Minister Peter Anderson, put the package to the Caucus meeting on November 3, a barrage of MPs spoke against RBT in a highly-emotional debate.
"We were told the measure was just political dynamite and that I was sending the Government to its political doom by making the recommendation," Mr Paciullo said.
"Neville Wran got up during this wave of speakers and - just for once and I think for the only time - wasn't very convincing.
"He normally could change a Caucus room debate around just by snapping his fingers but this time he didn't have hold of the details and facts.
"As the debate went on and on (Housing Minister) Terry Sheahan, who was sitting alongside me, said 'George, when the hell are you going to get up. We've lost it'.
"Sheahan had panicked but it really looked at that stage that Cabinet was going to lose its first Caucus vote."
After almost two hours - the longest Caucus debate Mr Paciullo can remember during his 19 years in Parliament - he rose to his feet and won the Caucus around.
Mr Paciullo basically told his colleagues they would have blood on their hands every time a child or family was wiped out on the roads if they didn't support him.
Even hard-headed Health Minister Laurie Brereton slipped Mr Paciullo a note to congratulate him on his performance.
The club industry's Caucus stalwart, Vince Durick, tried to save the situation with a motion referring the issue back to Cabinet - but this was defeated 39-25.
A second motion to agree to Cabinet's decision to introduce the system on a three-year trial basis then was carried 43-20.
After this crushing defeat, the club industry began a rearguard action in December by lobbying for the re-introduction of the 0.08pc blood-alcohol limit.
But it was all far too late and on December 17, 1982, the first RBT unit went into action on Parramatta Road, Granville.
SINCE then, more than 12 million breath tests have been conducted and 75,000 drivers charged with drink-driving, with billions of dollars saved to the community.
Mr Paciullo, who took Rex Jackson's place in Cabinet in November 1983, retired from Parliament in acrimonious circumstances in 1989 after being rejected the previous year as Labor leader.
But Mr Paciullo has had the last laugh - he's now chairman of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation.
These days, his in-depth research is far less traumatic than combing through road fatality figures and is confined mainly to the popping of corks.
And when the NSW Staysafe Committee holds a reunion dinner at Parliament House next week to mark the 10th anniversary of RBT, George Paciullo, as its first chairman, will probably be raising a few glasses - and taking a taxi home.
© 1992 The Sun Herald