Dubbo MP and Police Minister Troy Grant is “$325 lighter in the pocket” after being issued an infringement notice for using his phone behind the wheel.
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Mr Grant was called out after he posted a photo to social media on Saturday.
The photo depicts a ewe in the back of a car. It was taken while Mr Grant’s vehicle was stationary “for a long time at a roadworks site” on the Newell Highway. The phone was in a cradle at the time, and Mr Grant did not post the photo until he had arrived at his destination.
He turned himself into police, losing four demerit points on top of the fine.
Mr Grant said he had been unaware he was breaking the law, and hoped all motorists could learn from his mistake.
“Mobile phones are a distraction – that’s been born out in the statistics and in the increase of road crashes and fatalities,” he said.
“You’ve got to be concentrating on the job at hand, behind a car on the road, you’re travelling at speed often and if you’re distracted by a phone call … that’s just unacceptable.”