Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) | Hansard source

I want to reiterate what this debate is all about. This motion proposes:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 677 lives were lost on Australian roads in the six months to 31 December 2023; and

(b) the second half of 2023 was the deadliest six months on Australian roads since 2010;

We also have to think about how many injuries would've been sustained during that period. The motion also:

(2) recognises that the data needed to understand Australia's worsening road toll is being collected by state and territory governments but is not consistent and not being shared;

(3) further notes that:

(a) before the 2022 election, the federal Labor Party committed 'to cooperate with the states and territories to improve the timeliness and quality of road trauma data and look for opportunities to extract better quality road safety data from states and territories in return for funding of road projects'; and

(b) the Government has failed to deliver on that promise; and

(4) calls on the Government to compel the states and territories to collect and share data relating to the quality of Australian roads, the causes of crashes, and the effectiveness of road safety measures as a condition of the $50 billion in federal road funding allocated over the next five years under the National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects.

This is an incredibly important motion, particularly for all those people who live outside our capital cities. It is absolutely vital, as all the major motoring organisations right across the country have said, that we get access to this data. Why is it important? Once we can get access to this data, we can understand what roads need that absolutely urgent work done to repair and fix them. It also means that we would get an end to what we have seen in the last couple of years, where money is ripped out of certain regions and put into other regions, with no understanding whatsoever of the conditions of those roads and the absolute need for them to be urgently fixed. If we don't see this happen, as all those motoring bodies have said—and they're the ones who are leading this campaign; we are supporting them—we are, sadly, going to see more fatalities and more injuries.

That is why we're calling on the government to do the right thing. They have a huge opportunity to negotiate with the states and territories in the next five-year infrastructure agreement when it comes to road transport. Now is the time to say to the states and territories, 'Enough is enough is enough.' We need transparency to save lives. We need transparency to stop people being injured on our roads. We need transparency so we can make sure that the money is allocated where it is needed most. The reason why those opposite won't agree to this is absolutely obvious. Take my home state of Victoria. If we had this data, this information, there is no way known that we would allow the Victorian state government to go ahead with the Suburban Rail Loop, because it would be absolutely clear that that money should be going into roads.

It should be going into roads in your electorate, Member for McEwen, and roads in my electorate, Wannon, and roads right across regional Victoria. How can you sit here and say that the Suburban Rail Loop is a good way to spend money? We need to see the money going back into regional and rural roads, not going into these projects which are fanciful, which we know will blow out by billions and billions of dollars and which will never be built. That is why transparency is so important. (Time expired)

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