Stateline ABC TV

Your newly elected opposition leader, ladies and gentlemen…

And according to yesterday’s CT, in the story about Bill Stefaniak he used a mobile phone while driving and the matter has been referred to police.

Oddly, Bill phoned the paper three times to tell them what happened:

Initially he said the hands-free phone in his car was broken and he received a call.

“Someone rang so I was pulling to the side of the road to answer it,” he said.

“I just turned it off. I didn’t do anything more than that.”

Asked if he tried to punch in a text message he said, “Mate, I have a great deal of difficulty trying to send text messages.” Whatever he was doing, he said he wasn’t texting. “I can’t text. I can recall touching a couple of numbers as I pulled to the side of the road. Then I turned it off.”

In another call a short time later he said he might be mixing up a couple of calls.

“I’m just thinking, mate, in terms of someone ringing me. I think with that I pulled over to make an urgent phone call,” he said. “I would have looked down. I could have punched in a couple of numbers and I may have been moving when that happened.

“But I didn’t proceed with the call because we were running a bit late.”

In his third call Mr Stefaniak repeated that he believed he was pulling over to make a call and might well have punched in some numbers while the car was still mobile.

“If that’s an offence, I’ve done the wrong thing. I’ll pay the penalty. If that’s an offence, I’m very sorry for that, and let it be a lesson for me and others. I’ll cop it sweet.”