Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the Interstate Road Transport Charge Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2008 and the Road Charges Legislation Repeal and Amendment Bill 2008. These bills will help to strengthen the government’s commitment to road safety and the improvement of local roads, particularly for heavy vehicles. It fits well with our AusLink 2 legislation when it comes to safety. The legislation also ensures that the heavy vehicle industry will contribute its fair share of infrastructure costs incurred by governments in building and maintaining the roads that they drive on.

The purpose of the Interstate Road Transport Charge Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2008 is to amend the Interstate Road Transport Charge Act 1985, which imposes registration charges for heavy vehicles registered under the Australian government’s voluntary registration scheme. The bill will enable the implementation of the registration charge elements of the 2007 heavy vehicle charges determination, which revises national charges for heavy vehicles and trailers registered under the Federal Interstate Registration Scheme, otherwise known as FIRS. The determination was agreed to by the Australian Transport Council on 29 February 2008 and was implemented by the states on 1 July 2008. The implementation of the determination is part of the national road transport reform agenda, as agreed under the intergovernmental agreement for regulatory and operational reform in road, rail and intermodal transport. The determination implements the Council of Australian Governments request to fully recover the costs of provision of the road network for the heavy vehicle industry.

In the second reading speech of the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, he stated that this bill will help restore uniformity of heavy vehicle registration charges throughout Australia and enable nationally agreed new heavy vehicle registration charges to be applied to heavy vehicles registered under the Australian government’s voluntary FIRS system. Operators have the choice to register their heavy vehicles under FIRS or under state and territory legislation. At present, FIRS registration represents approximately three per cent of the total heavy vehicle registrations in Australia.

We look at the economic arguments for this bill, of course—and I am going to talk about my electorate of Forde more specifically in a minute—but it is really directly related to safety. It is more than just an academic argument when we are talking about safety and our road users. Certainly the previous speaker spoke about her electorate and the concerns and the terrible cost of carnage on our roads.

National consistency in heavy vehicle charges and regulations is essential for our national economy. At present there are approximately 365,000 heavy vehicles operating in the country. It is important that the industry has certainty and is able to operate nationally without red tape or confronting issues at state borders. I have had a number of representations from industry groups who rely on heavy vehicle transportation who expressed frustration at the red-tape barriers that occur at the Queensland and New South Wales border where my electorate sits. As a government, we talk about red-tape reduction, our cooperative federalism model and efficiencies, and this certainly applies to this piece of legislation, which is about bringing in enough revenue to provide better and safer roads throughout the country.

In the current economic climate it is necessary to ensure that we reduce the burden of unnecessary red tape, particularly for heavy road users and the businesses that depend on heavy vehicle transportation when travelling through different states and territories. This is important for rural areas where industry relies on this transportation or in some cases where rail infrastructure is poor or nonexistent. Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, I know the situation in your own electorate, which is quite a large and diverse electorate, is not unlike some smaller parts of my electorate where we simply have either no infrastructure or decent infrastructure. The road infrastructure in my electorate, which by default forms an integral part in a very important link across the border into New South Wales on the Mount Lindesay Highway, is very poor. For a whole range of reasons there is congestion and bottle-necking on the route across the border to the Gold Coast. A lot more transport facilities are being provided and so there is a lot more traffic coming across that area.

It is important, of course, that good planning allows for the connection with other transport and logistics infrastructure. I have spoken a number of times in this House about my own electorate of Forde and the area of Bromelton, which has just been announced as a development at the state level. It is of major interest to the Queensland state government and to the rest of this country. It will be, by the time all the development has occurred, probably the largest industrial development in the country and the largest intermodal port. It will be an inland port which will service not only South-East Queensland but also northern New South Wales and beyond. I have also referred in this House to the notion of the great south-west, where we look at the congestion and the confusion of transport logistics across the border. Proper planning and infrastructure—certainly the road linking with the rail—will make a huge difference to Bromelton and have great economic importance for the state. Of course, we cannot do this without a proper charging and funding regime that will support this sort of rollout. At the moment, the major logistics routes receive a certain level of funding—never adequate—but when you look at some regions, like my own electorate and that inland link across the New South Wales border, you will find that this is a major concern. Previously I have mentioned as a benchmark one little area that is just near the border, Duck Creek Road. While it is a dirt road that runs up the mountain and will never carry large transport trucks, Duck Creek Road is probably typical of the lack of provision of funding for roads. But take that model and put it towards our major transport routes: if we do not have adequate funding or proper infrastructure it certainly has a major bearing on the safety of people who use our highways.

The member for Werriwa talked about the 270 road deaths that have so far been directly attributed to heavy vehicle accidents. I take the point of the previous member of the opposition who spoke about the level of carnage on the roads. It is not an academic argument; we have to take every step to fix the problem and to make our roads much safer. We have all said it and we understand it very well: one road death is one too many. If we look at the increasing amount of logistical movements and the number of trucks that are involved in those particular incidents we must take immediate action. This bill goes some way, at least, to helping those who are using these corridors and infrastructure and getting them to participate in funding the changes.

I spoke about Bromelton and the need to have that interconnectivity and safe road infrastructure for the cross-border area from Beaudesert in my electorate across the border ranges into New South Wales to areas like Kyogle. I have also mentioned the notion of the great south-west, which is about looking regionally at providing proper infrastructure for transport movement. This can be based on the levies and charges provided through this particular industry. I know the argument is about potentially more taxes and charges, but we need an understanding of the need for safety and that it has to be funded. The productivity increase alone that comes from saving people’s lives—and the economic value we can put on that—and simply the number of road incidents that occur mean that it is very important that this bill proceeds.

I have also mentioned the Summerland Way, which is another area of interest and a major transport corridor that has been well underfunded. I know that both the member for Page and the member for Richmond share similar concerns, given that the Summerland Way—part of the great south-west—is integral to our region. With the growth of Bromelton we will see much more discussion in this House about the impacts and why we need to support the road infrastructure in that area. It is interesting that productivity is related to the level of road deaths. In fact, one in five road deaths are attributed to heavy vehicles, with up to 31 accidents a day. They say that 2.8 per cent have suffered serious work injuries as a result of incidents with trucking and road accidents.

I have spoken before in this House about the Mount Lindsay Highway, which is the main spine through the electorate of Forde, connecting the areas of Park Ridge, Jimboomba and Beaudesert. It has been described by many people, including me in this House, as essentially a goat track. It is only a two-lane carriageway but it carries an enormous amount of traffic travelling towards the Border Ranges and towards the Summerland Way. It is with great concern that we look at reports from the RACQ, the Royal Automotive Club of Queensland, that rate the lack of safety on our roads. The reports have a scale of 1 to 5, from less safe to safe. The Mount Lindsay Highway, a major piece of road infrastructure in my electorate, only rates at 2. The reports also rate the level of safety, and this highway has a zero for safety because of the number of roads and intersections that make their way onto it.

Linked with road issues are not only the lack of infrastructure and safety issues but also the provision of all the other services, particularly transport services, that we lack in that region. The constituents of Forde for a long time have argued, complained, spoken about and asked for good transport connection in the region. As I have said on other occasions, we need to put this together and say that transport is important, that the logistics movement is important and that the way we fund those things is important.

Putting dollars back into the road system will also allow the communities in Forde to be better served by not only the safety of those roads but also the other services that can be provided along those road corridors. At the moment we lack any decent public transport through the Forde region. To a large degree that comes down to safety. We do not have rest stops for trucks, which means we do not have any areas that are set aside for safely picking people up along that stretch. If you are a couple working, unless you have two vehicles you simply cannot get in and out of the Forde electorate. We essentially have no transport.

The township of Beaudesert is serviced by many other small towns around it, but it is the only provincial town outside of Brisbane that does not have a four-lane highway, a bus service or a train service. Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, I know you are nodding your head because of the lack of services in your region. We would all love to have the benefits of such infrastructure but, given that the seat of Forde starts only 30 kilometres south of the capital city of Brisbane, it is clear that something is missing from this particular region. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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