Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Today I give my second annual statement to the House on progress in delivering a vital national initiative—the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-20.

The strategy aims to cut the annual number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads by at least 30 per cent by 2020. It is an ambitious target.

Australians recognise the absolute importance of achieving this target, and this understanding underlies the commitment of all Australian governments to delivering the strategy.

The Gillard government is proud to have played a major part in forming the strategy in 2011 and to have a major role in delivering it.

The strategy is multidimensional, because there is no single solution to improving road safety.

The strategy covers 59 priority action items in four cornerstone areas: safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles, and safe people.

These themes encompass the need for both the safer design of roads and vehicles, and the safer behaviour of drivers, passengers, pedestrians and other road users.

The Australian government is responsible under the strategy for allocating agreed infrastructure resources to the national highway and local road networks, and for regulating safety standards for new vehicles.

Minister Albanese and I emphasised at the launch of the strategy that this target of a 30 per cent reduction in fatalities, and also—equally importantly—a 30 per cent reduction in serious injuries, was challenging but achievable, and it remains so.

In 2012, 1,309 people died on Australia's roads—2.5 per cent more than the number of road deaths recorded in 2011.

The 2012 increase is incredibly disappointing.

However, I do want to emphasise that it runs counter to the long-term downward trend in national road fatalities and still represents a significant 8.2 per cent reduction relative to the strategy's baseline period of 2008 to 2010.

Furthermore, all states and territories achieved reductions in road fatalities compared with the strategy baseline, and road deaths decreased across most age groups and road user categories.

Unfortunately, the main exception to this pattern involves people aged 60 years and over. In 2012, fatalities among this older group were up by 19 per cent, relative to the baseline period, and while it is premature to see this as an emerging trend, it is clearly an issue that warrants further examination.

Despite the encouraging gains overall, the level of death and injury on Australia's roads remains unacceptable and underlines the need for continuing efforts by all governments to implement the priority actions of the national strategy. I particularly want to take the opportunity to recognise in this place the role that local government played last night at the Australian Council of Local Government awards. We recognised, at the ALGA awards, that the Dungog, Maitland and Port Stephens councils received not only the national road safety award for local government, but also the overall national award for some fantastic work that they have done in their local communities on motorcycle safety. In fact, during the six months that they have had the program in place, they have not had a single motorcycle accident, and I want to acknowledge that.

I now want to turn particularly to the progress the Commonwealth has made in our specific areas of responsibility under the strategy.

Over many decades, the Australian government has administered the Australian Design Rules, which have underpinned the safer design of Australian road vehicles.

All road vehicles, whether newly manufactured in Australia or imported as new or second-hand vehicles, must in general comply with the relevant ADRs at the time of manufacture and supply to the Australian market.

As part of its commitment under the strategy, the Australian government is pursuing significantly improved road vehicle design in several areas.

We have streamlined the harmonisation of the ADRs with international standards, and we will continue to work closely with our international counterparts to ensure we progress improved safety measures in vehicle regulations that can be applied internationally.

Until recently, this has been a position supported by both sides of the House.

In addition to improving the safety of vehicles through changes to national standards, the Australian government continues to support complementary safety measures—particularly since becoming a member of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, ANCAP, in May 2010.

Labor is proud to be the first federal government to join ANCAP as an actual member.

We have provided ANCAP with $4.95 million in the period 2009-10 to 2013-14, which aims to increase ANCAP's crash test program and research and development. I think it is a tribute both to the funding and to ANCAP's work that it has become the driver of consumer concerns in safety and one of the components that people look for on the purchase of a new vehicle.

On recent figures, around 98 per cent of the vehicles rated by ANCAP have four or five star ratings.

The Australian government has also mandated seatbelt reminder systems, set requirements for ISOFIX child restraint systems and improved the standards for electric bicycles.

Our work is now focused on mandatory electronic stability control and brake assist systems.

In April this year, I released for public comment a proposal to make ESC compulsory for new light commercial vehicles, such as utilities and goods vans, and to make BAS standard in light passenger and light commercial vehicles.

In parallel with these efforts, the Australian government's work on the introduction of anti-lock braking systems for heavy trucks, trailers and buses is now well advanced.

This work, which forms part of phase 1 of the National Heavy Vehicle Braking Strategy, is an important step in bringing more modern braking systems into Australia's heavy vehicles.

It is also very encouraging that peak industry bodies are developing a code of practice to help operators optimise the performance of different braking technologies when combining trucks and trailers together.

Consistent with the National Road Safety Strategy, the government envisages that the next phase of the National Heavy Vehicle Braking Strategywill consider even more advanced braking technology such as ESC systems.

While we often and understandably think of road safety mainly in domestic terms, it also has important international dimensions.

Australia's National Road Safety Strategy coincides with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, and around 90 per cent of the world's road fatalities—which exceed 1.2 million—are suffered by low- and middle-income countries.

Australia is seen as a world leader in road safety for our significant achievements in reducing road trauma over several decades. Countries in our region often look to us for assistance and expertise in developing their own responses to this immense public health issue.

Australia is the largest donor to the World Bank's Global Road Safety Facility.

We contribute to regional road safety measures through international forums such as APEC, and we are delivering safety improvements through our aid-funded infrastructure programs in developing countries.

Australia has also participated very strongly in the development of international vehicle standards by the United Nations World Forum on Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.

Australia has led the development of a Global Technical Regulation on Pole Side Impact—the first time Australia has led development of an international vehicle standard. It is one that impacts on Australian motorists very heavily.

Side impacts with poles, trees and other narrow objects account for over 20 per cent of the Australian road toll and for a large number of serious head injuries. This new standard will require strong protective measures for vehicle occupants, including curtain airbags, which will be beneficial in all side impacts.

I am confident that the GTR will be adopted by the UN forum and that it will be incorporated into future Australian design rules.

Infrastructure Investment

Improving safety through investment in the nation's road infrastructure is a critical element of the strategy. The Australian government has made major investments in Australia's highway and other road infrastructure under the Nation Building Program. The government's expenditure on roads between 2008-09 and 2013-14 will total over $20.5 billion.

This investment has built and upgraded around 7,500 kilometres of road, resulting in a marked improvement in the condition and safety of our highways. The Australian Automobile Association considers that the proportion of the National Road Network rated 'high risk' has fallen substantially since 2007.

The second phase of the Nation Building Program will maintain the momentum of this investment.

The Black Spot Program, which targets road locations with recurrent crashes, will continue as part of the Nation Building Program until at least 2019.

An amount of $300 million will be provided over five years from 1 July 2014. Since 2008-09, more than 2,000 sites have been approved for funding, and this extension will fix a further 1,200 black spot areas.

The Australian government established the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program as part of the Nation Building Program, to improve the safety and productivity outcomes of heavy vehicle operations across Australia.

Funding has been applied to a range of projects to provide new or upgraded heavy vehicle rest areas and new or upgraded parking or decoupling bays, and projects which enhance the capacity and safety of roads and bridges and also saleyards for livestock to allow better access by heavier, high productivity vehicles to the road network.

The 2013-14 budget provided a further $100 million for heavy vehicle related projects under the next tranche of the Nation Building Program. This will bring total funding between 2012-13 and 2018-19 to over $250 million.

Seatbelts on Regional School Buses

The strategy also calls for governments to address the risks to children on school bus routes. For its part, the Australian government runs the highly successful Seatbelts on Regional School Buses program, which aims to increase the number of school buses equipped with seatbelts for students in rural and regional areas.

The program provides school bus operators with funding to fit seatbelts to new buses or to retrofit existing buses. I am pleased to see some movement from state governments on this issue. In April this year, I approved grants for a further 115 buses under the government's scheme, which has now provided total funding to date of $7.5 million to install seatbelts on 421 buses across bus routes in regional Australia.

Driveway Safety

One issue that has been very dear to my heart has been the problem of children being killed or injured by vehicles around the home. It is a matter of particular urgency. My department is working with a wide range of stakeholders to produce a set of voluntary building design guidelines to help protect young children—in particular—from the risk of vehicle run-overs in home driveways and related areas.

I am planning to release a public discussion paper on this work by the end of June.

Yesterday I also announced that my department is now undertaking the first stage of an international study into the effectiveness of reversing cameras as a means of reducing reversing crashes, including those leading to driveway deaths and injury of young children.

National Road Safety Forum

In August last year I also had the pleasure of hosting a very successful National Road Safety Forum at Parliament House in Canberra, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in a national discussion on road safety issues.

Ministers of the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure have since agreed to convene the forum annually. The 2013 forum will be held in Hobart next month and will focus on vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and motor cycle riders.

Implementation Progress

The Commonwealth and other jurisdictions are closely monitoring progress in delivering the strategy against high-level outcome measures and specific performance indicators.

In November last year, transport ministers published a report on the implementation status of the strategy. The report found that there was a considerable amount of work underway to implement the strategy, and that good progress had been made in several areas.

These areas include improving safety standards for new vehicles; the delivery of infrastructure programs addressing major crash problems and vulnerable groups; and stronger speed enforcement and compliance programs.

However, we still need to strengthen efforts to ensure that sufficient action is being undertaken to deliver the strategy.

At the most recent meeting of the transport ministers in May, I called on all governments to reaffirm their commitment to improving road safety by strengthening all of their efforts to implement the key priority action areas highlighted in the strategy.

Ministers noted that progress remains limited in a number of key areas including the introduction of point-to-point speed camera enforcement for all vehicles, which is highlighted in the strategy as a very effective road safety measure.

At that meeting I also raised concerns about the continuing lack of national data on serious injury crashes, due to major inconsistencies in the way states and territories define a serious injury crash. This significantly limits our capacity to properly monitor and analyse national road safety trends.

The Bureau of Infrastructure Transport and Regional Economics within my department, in cooperation with state and territory agencies, has developed a national road crash database to support measures of progress against the targets for both fatal and serious injury.

This national crash database was used in the last implementation status report for the strategy to produce fatality measures against most of the strategy's indicators. There is in-principle agreement among transport ministers to include serious injury measures once an adequate source of national serious injury data is established. I encourage all states and territories to continue with that work.

A comprehensive review of the national strategy and progress towards the target will be undertaken in 2014. The review will be an important element in ensuring we stay on track to achieve the aims of the strategy and reduce fatalities and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent over the decade.

I am pleased to have been able to bring a number of developments in that vital area to the attention of the House.

I present a copy of my ministerial statement, and I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Gippsland to speak for 15 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Gippsland speaking in reply to the minister's statement for a period not exceeding 15 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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