Child restraint laws

Babies and children

Babies aged up to six months must be secured in an approved rearward facing infant restraint that is properly fastened and adjusted.

Babies and children aged between six months and four years of age must be secured in either an approved rearward facing child restraint or an approved forward facing child restraint with built-in harness that is properly fastened and adjusted. It is recommended that a baby remain in a rearward facing infant restraint for as long as their size allows.

Children who have reached four years of age must be secured in an approved booster seat with a secured adult lap/sash seatbelt or a booster seat with a H-harness that is properly fastened and adjusted. The child must be secured in this manner up until they turn seven years of age.

The rules recognise that some children may be too large or too small for a specific type of child restraint. 

• If your child is too small to move into the next level of restraint, you should keep your child in the lower level restraint for as long as possible (for example, a child who has turned four but is too small for a booster seat should remain in a forward facing child restraint with a built-in harness).  
• If your child is too large to fit into a child restraint specified for your child's age, your child may move into the next level of restraint. A child is too tall for a booster seat when the level of the child’s eyes is above the level of the back of the booster seat.
• Children using booster seats that comply with the new Australian Standard should remain in the seat until their shoulders reach the upper shoulder height marker.

Seating children in the front passenger seat

Whether your child can sit in the front passenger seat will depend on the age of the child and whether there is more than one row of seats in the car.

If the car has one row of seats only (for example, a ute):

• a child of any age can sit in the front seat if the vehicle has only one row of seats provided they are properly restrained. If the vehicle has a passenger airbag fitted, a rearward facing child restraint should not be used if the restraint is positioned close to the airbag.

Where there are two or more rows of seats:

• a child under four years of age cannot sit in the front seat of a vehicle that has more than one row of seats, even if the child is three years of age and large enough to sit in a booster seat  
• a child aged between four and seven years of age cannot sit in the front seat of a vehicle that has more than one row of seats, unless all the other seats are occupied by children under seven years of age.

Penalties

The driver's responsibility
The driver is responsible for ensuring that all people travelling in their vehicle are correctly restrained. If they or their passengers are not restrained correctly, they risk being fined a penalty that may exceed A$300 and three demerit points for each unrestrained or incorrectly restrained child in the vehicle.

The only exemptions are:

• taxis and limousines where no child restraint is supplied
• on medical grounds where a certificate is provided by a doctor.

If more than one seatbelt offence occurs within a 12-month period, an additional three demerit points will apply. The additional demerit point penalty will apply to driver-related offences for seatbelts.

More information about child restraint rules

Download the following documents for more information about child restraint rules.

• Child restraints — questions and answers (PDF, 63 KB) contains more detailed information about the child restraints rules effective from 11 March 2010.
• The table of road rules changes provides a complete list of all new road rules effective from 12 October 2009.