In Queensland, it has long been known that a person cannot drink liquor while driving a vehicle. This law, however, did not extend to supervisors of Learner drivers. This meant that a person could supervise a Learner driver while drinking liquor at the same time.
The Government has recently reviewed this issue and has announced amendments on the basis that a Learner driver could be negatively influenced by seeing their supervisor drinking liquor in the vehicle. Once the amendments commence, it will be an offence for a supervisor to drink liquor while supervising a Learner driver with a proposed penalty of 3 penalty units.
Supervisors of Learner drivers should also keep in mind that the law still requires them to be under the legal alcohol limit when supervising a driver as they are legally considered to be ‘in charge’ of the vehicle, despite it being driven by another person.