House debates

Monday, 18 February 2019

Ministerial Statements

Road Safety

4:12 pm

Photo of Michael McCormackMichael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grayndler, and I note his passion on this issue as well.

Introduction

One hundred and nineteen. That is the number of road deaths in the first month of this year. One hundred and nineteen too many.

Crashes on our roads have a terrible and lasting impact on individuals and their families, as well as on emergency personnel and first responders.

Every one of us here today, each level of government—federal, state, territory and local—and each member of the Australian public plays a role in ensuring the safety of people on our roads.

I've said before, I don't like talking about road deaths in terms of statistics, because it can desensitise us to the personal impact: someone with talents, someone with ambitions and someone with loved ones—who loved and was loved. And who now is gone. Remembered, still loved, but lost. Their hopes and dreams and lives over.

Statistics do, however, provide us with a stark reminder of the scale and importance of the issue and the need to do better. Much better.

Since record keeping began in 1925, there's been an estimated 191,555 deaths on Australia's roads.

That is a shocking number. Imagine the same number of families, sitting down to Christmas lunch since the passing of a loved one, with an empty chair around the table for no good reason. 191,555: the lives and contribution to our communities that has been lost is unthinkable.

As the Australasian College of Road Safety emphasises to me, at least 37,000 people a year require hospitalisation because of serious injuries—more than 100 people a day—with 4,400 permanently disabled.

Regional and remote Australia continues to be overrepresented, with around 64 per cent of the deaths on our roads.

This must change.

Independent Inquiry into Road Safety

In 2017, the government initiated an inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020.

This strategy set out the vision that "no person should be killed or seriously injured on Australia's roads" and set the goal for a reduction of at least 30 per cent by 2020 (relative to a 2008-10 baseline).

With around only a 15 per cent reduction at the time, this inquiry was an appropriate call to action by the member for Gippsland and then Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.

Last November I wrote to all members and senators informing them that this inquiry had been handed down.

I would like to again acknowledge and thank the inquiry team, Associate Professor Jeremy Woolley, Dr John Crozier, Mr Lauchlan McIntosh AM, and Mr Rob McInerney—and all the stakeholders who contributed—for the tireless work on the inquiry report and for the ongoing passion they bring to addressing road safety.

As has been put to me by stakeholders I have met, a vision for zero might sound ambitious, but in aviation, mining and construction this is no longer a goal but an expectation. And these stakeholders are in no doubt that it is not just the goal that is important, it is implementing what has to be done to get there.

Government's response to the i nquiry

The panel's report has 12 recommendations to improve road safety leadership, governance, resourcing and accountability. It sets out a framework for the development of the next National Road Safety Strategy and proposes actions that can be taken now to make an immediate difference.

As the cabinet minister with responsibility for road safety, I take this responsibility very seriously and am very pleased to advise the House important work is already under way.

One of the first actions I have taken is to initiate a road safety governance review, with the support of all governments.

The governance review is an essential step—a step recommended by the independent panel—for all governments to consider improvements to road safety roles and responsibilities and the way road safety agencies are structured and resourced.

This governance review is about doing the groundwork, so resources are directed to where they make the most difference. It is about finding ways of improving coordination across and within the federal, state, territory and local systems of government, looking for gaps in effort, and developing a performance measurement system which drives improvement.

The governance review will help identify how to implement many of the inquiry recommendations. And it will help the Australian government answer questions about how to make road safety a genuine part of "business as usual" within its institutions—such as what a federal office of road safety should look like, whether to increase the scope of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, and how to better coordinate across the portfolios of transport, health, attorneys-general and others.

Leadership at all levels of government

Through our partnerships with all levels of government, the Australian government is pushing hard to improve our roads, making sure vehicles continue to become safer, encouraging people to make better decisions when they are on our road network and improving the way we collect, disseminate and utilise data to support better decision-making.

I took the inquiry report to my state and territory ministerial counterparts at the first opportunity. This is critical as it is only through a commitment from all levels of government that real progress will be made.

At this Council of Australian Governments' Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting in November last year it was agreed a working group will develop an implementation plan for the inquiry recommendations. This implementation plan is to be considered by the council at its next meeting in the middle of this year.

Better data and information

Governments know good information leads to better policy and management decisions. That includes monitoring what is happening on our roads as well as recording both road deaths and road trauma.

This last point is particularly vital because to date we have lacked reliable, nationally consistent, non-fatal injury data collected by jurisdictions linking crash, hospital and injury. This point was also highlighted through the inquiry.

The government is working with state and territory governments to improve the way crash data is collected and reported.

In 2019-20 we will have—for the first time—a national baseline to measure progress against the agreed target of a 30 per cent decrease in serious injury on our roads.

Also, as recommended by the inquiry, the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics has made available a data visualisation tool showing which communities have achieved zero road fatalities.

A key output of the governance review will be to identify the key performance indicators that will measure and report how harm can be eliminated, to frame the development of the next National Road Safety Strategy.

Safe r oads

The independent panel recommended greater investment in road safety improvements to our roads and made practical suggestions about ensuring spending is targeted toward the highest risk roads and corridors.

The member for Grayndler and I may find opportunities to argue on the margins, but what we do agree on is the importance of transport infrastructure investment and the need for road safety to be a focus. I appreciate his efforts in that regard.

Late last year we met to discuss, amongst other things, the South Coast section of the Princes Highway and agreed on a bipartisan approach to improve that stretch of dangerous road. I very much appreciate the bipartisanship and the reaching across the aisle that took place.

Likewise, the government continues to fund programs such as Black Spot, Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity, Roads to Recovery and Bridges Renewal, to ensure they are addressing road safety priority areas.

But the government expects road safety to be embedded in all our road transport investments. Much of our 10-year, record $75 billion infrastructure plan is delivered in partnership with the states and territories and we'll be doing more to ensure road safety remains a core objective of the next National Partnership Agreement due to commence from 1 July this year. We'll also be working with Infrastructure Australia to ensure road safety is a key factor in its business case assessments.

Our goal through this plan is to get people home sooner and safer. We are also seeing the dividend from this approach. Further to our commitment to improve and invest in the Bruce Highway upgrades since 2013-14, there has been a 31 per cent reduction in crashes and a 32 per cent reduction in fatalities.

In fact, analysis undertaken by the government's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics has shown that previous investment by the government in more than 70 major projects has reduced by 1,800 the number of accidents due to safer driving conditions through upgrades road surfaces, targeted lane widening, additional overtaking lanes and improved signage and intersections.

The government will be doing much more to better identify the outcomes from our road investments and also to identify what factors are having the most success in reducing road safety incidents.

The government is looking at how it can work with other levels of government to support greater road safety and maintenance works on regional roads, and a Roads to Recovery Statement of Expectations has already been released to give this effect.

This government will continue to examine its road safety programs to ensure they are targeting the right projects and will work with jurisdictions to ensure this is informed by the most up-to-date data.

Safe Vehicles

As we work to make our roads safer, we also need to ensure the vehicles that travel on them are safer for their occupants and for other road users.

Targeted changes in the Australian Design Rules have already resulted in a significant reduction in injuries and fatalities—basic things such as the introduction of seatbelts, child restraints and electronic stability control in light vehicles have all made a big difference in reducing road deaths and injuries in Australia.

The changes to the Australian Design Rules under the 2015-2017 National Road Safety Action Plan for pole-side impact, electronic stability control for heavy vehicles and anti-lock brake systems for motorcycles alone will save more than 850 lives with net benefits of over $2.2 billion to the community over 15 years as a result of those changes.

Manufacturers are also making big advancements in vehicle safety, and people are choosing to buy safer cars.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has reported that of the top 100 selling vehicles available at March 2018, 37 models, representing 31 per cent of the market, offered autonomous emergency braking as standard. This represents a tenfold increase from 2015.

Safer cars can and will continue to be a key factor in the safety of drivers and their passengers.

Last year the government announced a further $6.6 million for ANCAP for another five years to assist it to continue to play its important role in testing and assessing new cars, supporting people to make informed decisions about the safety of the cars they buy and general advocacy about safety on Australian roads.

Safe People

Governments are also encouraging people to make better decisions about their behaviour on our roads.

There has been progress over the years—our roads, vehicles and road users are becoming safer. Today, we take seat belts, airbags, lower speed limits, behavioural programs targeting drink driving and so much more for granted. Complacency however, remains a huge challenge. Recent reports show human error contributes to more than 90 per cent of all road accidents. So the search for effective new ways to deal with human error must be accelerated.

Australia is now the world leader in drug driving enforcement and deterrence, and with around 400,000 tests annually, it is the largest roadside drug screening and testing program in the world.

We will continue to try to do more. A National Drug Driving Working Group—with police, government, road authorities and key policy makers—is developing a national best practice model of roadside drug testing.

Drug driving requires a strong response from governments if it is to save lives on Australian roads.

Of great and increasing concern is driver distraction, particularly the use of mobile telephones while driving.

A national survey of community attitudes to road safety conducted in 2017 found 64 per cent of people used a phone while driving—one in five admitted they used their phone for activities such as browsing the internet, texting, taking photographs and other applications. That's a staggering number of road users who are driving distracted each and every day, and it must stop.

If you take your eyes off the road for as little as two seconds to look at your phone, at 50km/h, which is the general speed limit in a built-up area, your vehicle travels 27.78m. That's a lot of time to miss a small child running onto the road after a ball or a pet, a lot of time not to see a pensioner on a walker take a step too far between parked cars, and a lot of time to miss people using a pedestrian crossing.

As part of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2018-2020, the Queensland government's been leading a national project to develop a national approach to reduce driver distraction. I commend them for it.

In addition, the National Transport Commission's been progressing some important work on the Australian road rules as they relate to driver distraction.

I commend the New South Wales government as well, for increasing the penalty for illegally using mobile phones to five demerit points. The penalty was increased from four to five demerit points on 17 September 2018. During double-demerit periods, drivers who break the rules will be penalised ten demerit points. That's most of your licence.

I intend to do more with my state and territory counterparts on education campaigns, better understanding behavioural influences to inform enforcement and deterrence and what technological responses might be available.

In support of this, I've recently written to leading telecommunications and information technology companies seeking their advice and cooperation on what more can be done.

Improved transport systems and automated vehicles.

The government is working with industry and state and territory governments through the COAG Transport and Infrastructure Council to develop a fit-for-purpose regulatory system to ensure we are ready to adopt automated vehicles safely and legally on our roads. The National Policy Framework for Land Transport Technology has been developed, to foster an integrated policy approach by governments across Australia to the development and adoption of emerging transport technology.

Last year, I announced $9.7 million for the establishment of an Office of Future Transport Technologies. This office will work across government, industry and other key entities to ensure Australians can access the benefits of future transport technologies while ensuring they are kept safe as the technologies are developed and deployed. The new office enhances the government's strategic leadership role in developing and implementing future transport technologies in Australia successfully and responsibly.

Partnership with states, territories and local government.

State and territory governments are on the frontline of road safety in delivering the safest possible system—safe roads, safe vehicles, safe people, and safe speeds.

They fund, plan, design and operate the road network, manage vehicle registration, ensure vehicles on the road are roadworthy and maintain our driver licensing systems and regulate and enforce road user behaviour.

At the same time, local governments fund, plan, design and operate the road networks in their local areas. We recognise this is a mammoth task. As the Australian Local Government Association has reported, local roads managed by local governments account for 75 per cent of the total road length in Australia, or 662,000 kilometres.

So maintaining cooperation and partnership across all levels of government is essential, including through the COAG Transport and Infrastructure Council.

And in recognition of the need for coordination across all aspects of the road safety policy challenge, I've written to the chair of the COAG Health Council, the Hon. Roger Cook MLA, to action a decision of transport ministers to refer the inquiry report for consideration.

The government's work together with state and territory governments, police industry associations and community groups underscores the joint commitment to all Australians being able to use our roads safely.

I intend to pursue more regular meetings of relevant ministers, including road safety, law enforcement, health and education together with road safety stakeholders to ensure our goals are achieved.

International partnerships

I've spoken about drug driving as an area where Australia is a world leader.

As a nation with a strong record of achievement in improving road safety, Australia has the capacity and the responsibility to assist other nations in reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on their roads.

Australia will also need to learn from others around the world. Our international partnerships will be critical in carrying us forward to the vision zero targets.

Involvement of members and senators

I also commend the Parliamentary Friends of Road Safety Group, co-chaired by the member for Wide Bay, Llew O'Brien, and Senator Alex Gallacher. This group of committed parliamentarians from all sides of politics is using its influence and network to bring greater awareness of road safety and the need for continued improvements to our approach.

And with the support of the House, I propose a standing committee on road safety be pursued in the next term of parliament, to build on the good work of the Parliamentary Friends of Road Safety. This committee will be able to consider reports on progress with meeting reduction targets and implementing road safety initiatives.

In conclusion, road safety is complex, with no simple or easy solutions. My priority, as the minister responsible for road safety, is to lift the Commonwealth's leadership and ensure all governments continue to invest in a safe road safety transport system. I was pleased to stand with the member for Grayndler, the shadow minister for transport and infrastructure, when the inquiry report was delivered by the independent panel. I'm pleased to be with him today to commit to taking forward the inquiry's recommendations, not only because this issue is too important for politicking but because it provides the necessary consistency in policy and time to measure performance and build the evidence to know where to focus and where to make a real difference.

I welcome more discussion about the actions of all levels of government, the private sector and community can make towards a future in which deaths and serious injuries are no longer regarded as the inevitable and acceptable cost of road travel. Road safety is of deep concern to each and every one of us. For me, it is personal. As a former regional journalist, I have covered far too many road accidents and incidents, leaving far too many awful and painful memories of the impact on families as well as emergency services personnel.

No matter where you live, the government wants to help you get home sooner and safer. However, still more than 100 Australians are hospitalised daily and a further 100 die each month due to road cashes. Even though regional Australians make up around only a quarter of the population, they account for more than half of the deaths across the nation. I encourage everyone here to consider what they are doing to make our roads safer, how we work with our electorates, the conversations we have and the actions we can make to get a real and lasting difference. Together we can get to our goal of zero fatalities and injuries each year. I present a copy of my ministerial statement.

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