Western Australia will amend the Road Traffic Act 1974 under “Kelly’s Law” to impose tougher, longer licence disqualifications on hit-and-run drivers who flee serious or fatal crashes. The reforms will target offenders who fail to stop and render assistance, preventing them from regaining a licence for extended periods and, in some cases, permanently. For road and traffic engineers, the move signals continued policy emphasis on driver behaviour and enforcement rather than geometric or asset changes to improve network safety outcomes.

Antidumping duties under the US Tariff Act of 1930 are proposed as a floating “price-gap” mechanism to counter China’s below-cost exports of rare earths and other USGS-designated critical minerals, with duties rising automatically as Chinese export prices fall. Erik Groves, corporate strategy and in-house counsel at Morgan Companies, argues this would extend the logic of the US Department of Defence’s floor-price agreement with MP Materials at Mountain Pass without Washington acting as buyer of last resort. Coordinated antidumping actions by the US, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea could establish de facto price floors across multiple Western markets.

Updated planning guidance on flood risk and coastal change still leaves a regulatory gap for mandatory sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), argues Stuart Crisp, UK manager at Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS). He notes that, outside Schedule 3-type regimes, many English developments can proceed without adoptable SuDS features such as attenuation tanks, geocellular storage and permeable pavements, despite long-term surface water and groundwater flood risks. For civil and drainage designers, this keeps SuDS largely policy-led rather than enforceable, complicating investment in higher-spec systems and long-term maintenance planning.