Charged With a Traffic Offence in QLD or NSW? What Actually Decides Whether You Keep Your Licence

A charge is not a conviction, and in NSW that difference is everything

Being charged does not automatically brand you with a criminal record or mean your licence will be taken from you. What happens to your licence gets decided later.

In New South Wales, the only route to avoiding a licence disqualification is a guilty finding without a conviction being recorded. This is made clear by Legal Aid NSW, which also confirms that demerit points are not recorded in such a case. One decision, both consequences gone. 

In Queensland, the same decision does not carry the same weight. A court can decline to record a conviction and you can still face demerit points and disqualification. For drink and drug driving, disqualification is mandatory and set by statute, and the court can only determine how long it lasts, not whether to apply it. 

This is the single most common thing people get wrong when they assume the border makes no difference.

The two systems, side by side

Below are four questions to break down the major differences between the states: 

The disqualification periods themselves also differ, and they’re worth taking a look at before coming to conclusions about how bad your situation is.

In Queensland, Transport and Main Roads sets out a 1 to 9 month disqualification for a reading under 0.10, 3 to 12 months για το 0.10 to under 0.15, and a minimum of 6 months once you are at 0.15 or above. 

Drug driving splits into two separate offences: driving with a relevant drug present in saliva or blood carries 1 to 9 months, while driving under the influence of a drug carries a minimum of 6 months. People routinely assume those two are the same offence. They are not. The difference can mean many more months off the roads.

In New South Wales, the published first-offence figures are a 3-month minimum and 6-month automatic disqualification for the low range, a 6-month minimum and 12-month automatic disqualification for the mid range, and a 12-month minimum against a 3-year automatic disqualification for the high range. Essentially, the matter itself comes down to this gap between ‘minimum’ and ‘automatic’, kind of like a battleground between you and the court.

‘Can I still drive for work, though?’

This is the question that decides whether a charge is a slight inconvenience or an all-out catastrophe. And, of course, the two states have opposing views on the subject.

Queensland has a restricted work licence arrangement. Under section 87 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995, an eligible driver can ask the court to let them drive to and from work. Eligibility is genuinely narrow. Broadly, it is for low- and mid-range first offenders. Having a drink- or drug-driving conviction in the previous five years, and a reading of 0.15 or above basically rules you out from the get-go. The court also has to be satisfied you are a fit and proper person and that losing your licence would cause extreme hardship by depriving you of your livelihood.

The timing catches some people out. The application has to be made after you plead or are found guilty and before the magistrate orders the disqualification. Miss that window and the opportunity is gone for good.

New South Wales offers no work licence option at all. What it has instead is the right to appeal. Police can suspend you on the spot for a range of offences, but, as Legal Aid NSW confirms, you have 28 days to appeal to the local court. Your licence stays suspended while the appeal runs. For example, one of the suspensions you can appeal is exceeding the speed limit by more than 45km/h. If the appeal is successful, you’ve managed to avoid a total of 6 months off the roads.

So, same driver, same conduct, gets a completely different set of options depending on which side of the Tweed they were pulled over.

What actually decides the outcome

This is the part the penalty tables don’t show.

As mentioned above, the result is not usually won by a clever argument on the day. It’s won weeks earlier, by working out what a court needs to see and then going and getting it. Jade Turner, who practises in criminal and traffic law at Kingsford, put it plainly when we asked her about a recent positive outcome for a client:

‘This great result was due to the right preparation. It’s important to get together the right material to ensure you are in the strongest position to argue the relevant factors for sentencing.’

Below, there are five of Turner’s recent cases, showing what a matter looks like in practice. Just be aware that no two cases are ever the same. Please use the below examples as illustrations of a method rather than any indication of what a court would do in your specific situation. All the cases are anonymised. 

Five recent matters we’ve handled:

Case 1: Queensland, driving with a relevant drug present. Previous suspensions, disqualifications and a crash. On paper, this is close to the worst starting position possible. Our preparation was built around three things a sentencing court actually weighs: evidence of rehabilitation, genuine remorse, and a low risk of reoffending. The result was the lowest penalty available with no conviction recorded, and the minimum one-month disqualification the offence allowed.

Case 2: New South Wales, exceeding the speed limit by more than 45km/h. A nurse, running late for a shift, with a reasonably good traffic record and a six-month suspension in front of her. The work here was identifying exactly what evidence would establish exceptional circumstances, then guiding her to obtain it before the appeal. The suspension was cancelled.

Case 3: New South Wales, driving with cannabis in an oral fluid sample. He had priors. He was self-medicating, and his GP had already recommended he get a medicinal cannabis prescription, which he had not acted on. The advice was to obtain the prescription and gather references, transforming a simple admission into an explanation supported by evidence. He avoided conviction and kept his licence, which, as we mentioned previously, in New South Wales is the same decision.

Case 4: Queensland, high range drink driving. A very high reading, and she had crashed and written off her car. Nobody was seriously hurt. Imprisonment was within range for conduct at that level. The preparation was specific and practical: which courses to complete, what counselling to undertake, and how to evidence the financial impact of losing her licence. The court did not record a conviction, imposed a small fine, and gave the minimum disqualification.

Case 5: New South Wales, drink driving mid-range with drug present in oral sample (combined offence). In this case, the preparation was thorough rather than clever: references, course completion certificates, and prescription evidence, all gathered before the hearing. The court avoided recording a conviction, which meant the driver kept his licence. The sentencing judge described it as ‘a five-star sentence’, not because the outcome was lenient, but because the preparation had given her everything she needed to justify that leniency, and because a non-conviction for an offence of this nature is rare.

The common thread is not the offence itself. Plus, two of these people already had records and two had crashed. What they had in common is that somebody worked out what the court needed to see and put it in front of them, rather than turning up and hoping.

Remember, these outcomes are individual to the facts of each matter. Past results are not a guide to what will happen in different future cases.

Why the clock is tighter in Queensland

Queensland does not backdate disqualification. Time you spend off the road waiting for the matter to be heard does not get taken off when a final decision is given.

In New South Wales, time already spent suspended before the hearing may count towards a later disqualification. It really depends on several factors, but the fact that it’s even possible gives lots of drivers hope.

Practically, that means a driver in Queensland who had to wait two months to get advice has usually just added two months to their total time off the road, on top of whatever the court orders. A driver in New South Wales in the same position may not have. It’s a surprisingly important difference between the two states, and one that can cost you dearly. 

First steps if my licence was suspended

• Write down your reading, the exact offence on the paperwork, and the date. Whether you were charged with driving with a relevant drug present or driving under the influence of a drug changes the disqualification range significantly, and the two get confused constantly.
• Check whether you have been suspended immediately or given a court date. In New South Wales, an immediate suspension starts a 28-day appeal clock. That clock does not wait for you to get organised.
• Ask about a work licence straight away if you are in Queensland. The application has to be made at a specific moment in the hearing, and eligibility depends on your reading and your record.
• Start gathering material now, not the week before court. Courses, counselling, a letter from your GP, references, evidence of what losing your licence would actually do to your household. All of it takes longer to obtain than people expect.
• Do not assume the worst, and do not assume it will be fine. Both assumptions stop people from doing the one thing that changes the outcome.

The window is the one thing you always have control of

You cannot change your reading and you cannot change your record. What you can change, though, is how much is prepared before your matter is heard. And, specifically for Queensland, the quicker you start, the lower the impact the disqualification will have, due to the state not having a backdating scheme in place.

Kingsford Lawyers acts for drivers in Queensland and New South Wales, and we are available 7 days a week, with support in over 12 languages.

Book a free chat. No obligation, no pressure.

Phone: 1300 244 342