Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Main Committee on a very important issue. It is largely a state issue but it is an issue of extreme importance for all of us. In recent times, as the member for Makin and the member for Wakefield will be aware, the Adelaide Hills have seen a large number of road crashes involving young people. In particular, as the Mount Barker Courier reported last week on the front page of its edition, there have been three serious accidents in the Adelaide Hills so far this year in which six young people have been killed: one in Lobethal on 14 February, one in Bridgewater on 25 March and one on 30 May in Mount Barker which was literally about 1½ kilometres from my home. Unfortunately, all of the accidents were due to speed and due care not being taken. I will not step through each accident, but suffice it to say that six people dying in my local community has been a significant issue and the Mount Barker Courier has rightly given a great deal of attention to it.

Safety on the roads is an issue that is important to all of us, not just in South Australia but across the country, and it is a particularly significant issue for our young people. This year, unfortunately, the South Australian road toll is a lot higher than it has been in previous years. As of last week there have been 62 deaths, compared to 37 at the same time last year. We do not really know why this is happening. But it is certainly of a great deal of concern to my local community and people are rightly reassessing the rules that apply. It is an important thing for us to do when we have this number of deaths.

I want to refer to a constituent, Mr John Coorey, who came and saw me following the death of his son on an Adelaide Hills road late last year. Mr Coorey had written to me earlier this year and then came to see me about his son’s accident. His son was unfortunately killed when riding his motorcycle on a winding road in the Adelaide Hills, in an accident that he had no control over. It is an extraordinarily sad story. He was an up-and-coming 19-year-old going through life. His father and his family are devastated over what has occurred. When Mr Coorey came to see me, he pleaded with us all as law makers, no matter whether we are state or federal, to reassess the way that we conduct our driver training and to reassess our approach to road safety. The point he made was that we too often seek to blame other drivers on the road when we are all far too aggressive. It gets back to the basic training and ongoing training that we get. I think he makes a very good point that is worth while to consider.

Although this is a state issue, I think it is an issue that we in this place need to take an interest in. We do our training when we are 17 or 18 years of age and then we can avoid ever being tested or doing any sort of road safety retraining until later in life. For something as dangerous as a motor vehicle you would think that it would make sense to have some ongoing support for people to update their skills, to learn new techniques and to just remind themselves of basic safety information on the roads. I think it is something that is worth while considering because I am not sure that the training you receive at 17 or 18 years of age, in any field, lasts you forever; I am sure other members would agree that it would make sense for us to reconsider whether we should have five-yearly refresher courses or something of that ilk. The point I am making here today is that, for the sake of the safety of the young people in our communities, the federal and state parliaments and all of us together need to look at this issue and consider whether we are getting it right in the way that we go about road safety. I am not seeking to criticise anyone; I am simply saying that we need to reconsider this issue because it is a very important issue for our younger Australians.