Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I addressed the inaugural meeting of the National Road Safety Council that has occurred today in Parliament House. The council was established in 2009 by the Australian Transport Council to act as an advisory body on road safety matters and to support the implementation of key road safety measures set out in the National Road Safety Strategy, action plans and other ATC agreed initiatives.

The Commonwealth and every one of our state and territory governments is committed to improving road safety, a fact demonstrated through the unanimous support of all jurisdictions for the establishment of this council and agreement to jointly fund it through a national partnership agreement.

The council and its ambassadors will have a key role in spreading the road safety message to our community. Road trauma is one of the major public health problems facing this country. The harsh reality was brought home in news headlines and TV footage throughout December and January after crashes involving young people, heavy vehicles and hit-and-run accidents.

It is important to recognise that much good work has been achieved over the last 40 years to make our roads safer. Two new reports by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics released today confirm this. According to the first report—Roads deaths in Australia 1925-2008—annual road deaths have dropped from a peak of 3,798 in 1970 to an average of 1,641 between 2000 and 2008, even though the number of vehicles on the road has increased more than threefold.

The second report—Cost of Road Crashes in Australia—calculated that the annual social cost of road crashes declined by about $1.5 billion in real terms between 1996 and 2006. Despite this 7.5 per cent reduction in a decade, the total cost in 2006 still remained significant at $17.85 billion—equivalent to 1.7 per cent of GDP.

Tougher laws, better policing, improved driver training, better road design, extensive education campaigns and new vehicle technologies have all contributed to a large reduction in the frequency, severity and economic cost of road crashes over recent decades. But there is more to do. The 1,509 people who died on our roads in 2009 represent loss, grief and heartache for families and communities across our nation.

Of course, the number of deaths on our roads is only the tip of the iceberg. The latest hospitalisation figures published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that nearly 33,000 people were seriously injured in crashes during 2006-07. Many of these people are now living with severe, lifelong injuries. Sadly, these figures have been trending upwards for several years.

Road trauma disproportionately affects young, healthy Australians. About 30 per cent of those killed and 37 per cent of those hospitalised in road crashes are under 25 years old. As a society, we nurture these young people, we educate them and we invest our hopes in them, only to see those hopes dashed. We see the images in our papers and TV screens and at roadside memorials. We may know friends and family who have lost loved ones. We must do more.

This is not an issue that can be solved solely by governments—it is an issue that affects everyone in the community and we all have to do something about it. Better roads are part of the solution, as is the use of improved vehicle technology, such as electronic stability control. But driver attitudes also need to change. I recently released a Survey of Community Attitudes to Road Safety, an annual survey, of 1,615 Australians. It found that while most are well informed about road safety matters and support the efforts of police to catch and punish those that break the law, the personal conduct of most leaves a lot to be desired. According to the survey:

• 61 per cent of respondents said they use their mobile phone while driving;
• 25 per cent consider it acceptable to speed ‘if you are driving safely’;
• 16 per cent of respondents had fallen asleep at the wheel, with 43 per cent having done so more than once;
• and 6 per cent of respondents—and 11 per cent of those younger than 25—‘always, nearly always or mostly’ drive at least 10 kilometres per hour over the speed limit.

It really isn’t good enough. We need to get that message through loud and clear, and we have to reinforce it with each other. We need to be doing much, much more as a nation to prevent deaths and serious injuries on our roads. And that is precisely why the council has been formed.

Ten years ago, transport ministers established the current National Road Safety Strategy, 2001-2010. The strategy set a target to reduce the rate of road deaths by 40 per cent, from 9.3 to 5.6 deaths per 100,000 people. To date we have achieved a 26 per cent reduction, but it is very unlikely that we will meet the 40 per cent target in the final year of the strategy.

The National Road Safety Council has an important role to play in ensuring that the very best road safety measures and practices are taken up and implemented in all Australian states and territories. The membership of the council has been determined on the basis of their effectiveness as key opinion makers and community leaders. We look to the council to help us engage the wider community and help us put road safety even more on the social agenda.

The council draws on many sectors that have an interest in advancing road safety: the chair, Roger Cook, chairs the Motor Accident Commission of South Australia, for which road safety is core business. We also have some leading experts in road safety research and policy. Dr Soames Job is an experienced road safety researcher who has been able to put his knowledge into practice as Director of the New South Wales Centre for Road Safety in the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority. Professor Ian Johnston, a former director of the Monash University Accident Research Centre, had a key role in a national TV campaign demonstrating how small reductions in travel speed can have a major effect on accidents. He is now applying his knowledge as a Deputy Chairman of the National Transport Commission. Freda Crucitti is President of the Australian Automobile Association, representing millions of Australian motorists, with a keen interest in vehicle safety ratings and safer roads. Professor MaryAnn Bin-Sallick has strong links with Indigenous communities, for whom road safety is a major concern, and a big contributor to the gap in Indigenous health outcomes, which we are trying to close. Wayne Gardner, a former world motorcycle and motor racing champion, is committed to making a difference on road safety and brings an ability to cut through with this message to the public. Ann Bunnell has strong links with the planning community, which has a key role in building road safety into our urban environments.

In addition, our National Road Safety Ambassadors include business leaders, role models and media personalities with the potential to help us engage and mobilise the broader community in advancing road safety. Melissa Doyle is one of the anchors on the Channel 7 Sunrise program and is keen to promote road safety to families around Australia. Lindsay Fox heads up one of Australia’s largest road transport companies and is a passionate advocate of road safety, particularly that affecting the trucking industry. Chief Superintendent John Hartley is from the NSW Police Force. It is particularly important that those who are responsible for law enforcement and who also have the very difficult job of attending road accidents, when they occur, are represented as ambassadors, and I am pleased that the Chief Superintendent has agreed to participate. Neil Mitchell AO has used his position as talkback host on Melbourne’s Radio 3AW to promote solutions on road safety over many years. Mr David Wirrpanda, a former champion AFL footballer and West Australian Young Australian of the Year, is a strong role model for Indigenous Australians and for young Australians.

One of the first challenges for the council will be to assist governments with the development of the next National Road Safety Strategy for 2011-2020. Transport ministers from across the country have already agreed that the new strategy will set an ambitious vision and targets. There are many other stakeholders with an interest in advancing road safety and I expect that the council will focus on opportunities to build productive relationships and maximise the support of relevant stakeholders. The National Road Safety Council has the support of all transport ministers across the nation. It is the first time that the Australian and state and territory governments have established a body to drive a truly national approach to road safety. I am sure, and I would encourage and expect, that there will be broad support across this parliament for this initiative.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Wide Bay to speak for 10 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Wide Bay speaking for a period not exceeding 10 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for this statement. At the time he announced the establishment of the National Road Safety Council I issued a statement supporting it, and I do so to this day. Road safety is an important national issue. The tragedy of road deaths has affected almost every family in the country. When a life is cut short, mothers and fathers are left without children or children are left without parents. Other people are maimed and therefore not able to contribute as they would wish to their community. Opportunities are lost and the shock of an unexpected road accident certainly reverberates through a whole community.

As the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government mentioned in his comments, there have been some particularly tragic accidents over recent times which have touched the hearts of all Australians, and so any action that any government or community can take to try and reduce the road toll is indeed commendable and worthy of support. There is no magic cure. Everyone has a desire to see things done better. Improvements to roads make a difference. Improvements to training make a difference. But I think ultimately there needs to be a culture of safety and awareness on the road and a desire amongst motorists to give priority to arriving safely, even if that means a compromise to a schedule or some inconvenience from time to time.

As the minister said, significant progress has actually been made. In spite of the publicity that we receive on television and radio, the road toll is actually in decline in Australia, and that is very welcome. The minister referred to the targets set 10 years ago by transport ministers around Australia to cut the national road toll by 40 per cent. I suspect when that target was set that it was considered to be ambitious, maybe even unachievable. But we actually did very well, and midway through the period, in fact as recently as 2008, there was the expectation and hope that we might actually reach that 40 per cent target. The road toll had fallen in almost every year and people were getting optimistic that the target might in fact be achievable. But sadly 2009 has been a bad year, the biggest increase in the road toll in a decade, and that has set back any realistic hope that we might get to a 40 per cent reduction by the end of this calendar year.

Nonetheless we can be thankful that some progress has been made. We need to look at whether there are any particular factors that have resulted in an increase in the road toll in 2009 and we must seek to address them. There are statistical bumps and anomalies from time to time and this could be one of them, but in reality we need to always be diligent in looking at ways in which we can act responsibly to try and reduce the road toll. The public have a desire to see stronger policing on the roads and I think that is important. On the other hand there is also often criticism that policing is used by the various state instrumentalities to raise money for the state budget rather than to really attack the areas of greatest concern. But if we have a law, and that law is properly prepared and presented and has the potential to save lives or to reduce injuries, then it ought to be enforced. So long as police and the authorities act reasonably then I have no objection to, and indeed strongly support, an active and visible campaign by police on the road to try and ensure that road safety is at the highest possible level.

There are a lot of statistics, and the minister referred to the new studies that have apparently been released today. I have not seen those studies but I have looked at some of the figures over recent times and there is an enormous range in the accident rate between the Australian states. Maybe that also provides us with some questions that need to be answered. In the ACT, for instance, there are only 0.58 deaths per 10,000 registered motor vehicles in a year. That is too many, but it is only 0.58. In Victoria it is 0.77, in Queensland it is 1.03, and other states also fall within that range of 0.77 up to the Western Australia figure of 1.2. On the other hand, in the Northern Territory the rate is 6.1—six times the national average. A lot of attention is sometimes drawn to the different speed laws in the Northern Territory, although I am not sure that they are the major factor. We often talk about Aboriginal disadvantage in this country. There are many statistics about the health levels of Australian Aborigines and about underachievement in education and in a whole range of other areas, but one of the greatest tragedies is that the death rate in road accidents among Aborigines is many times the national average. So there also needs to be a real effort to address road safety as a culture within the Aboriginal community. I think that ought to be a priority area of action as we look towards trying to find new areas where we can help to improve road safety in Australia.

There are a number of other initiatives that could be taken which may well be constructive. Every state and federal government has been active in supporting various driver training programs, but it is doubtful whether any of those programs has identified itself as being outstandingly successful above others. Indeed there is the issue of the training program lasting not much longer after it is left. People forget the good habits that they have learned and in practice their standards of driving fall apart. So we need to look very closely at new driver training programs. Young drivers, inevitably, are inexperienced and therefore less able to handle a difficult situation. But sometimes young people also make bad decisions and get themselves into positions where they ought not to be, and so training programs will always be important.

I think we should move to a situation where all new cars sold in Australia in volume carry an ANCAP star safety rating. That system is not applied universally. Many cars do have the safety rating and it is a tribute to the Australian manufacturing industry over recent times that we are now getting some vehicles at the top end of that star safety rating, but it would be a great encouragement if we insisted that all vehicles sold in Australia, particularly any sold in numbers, have such a rating. You destroy a car in the process, so clearly you cannot do it for one-off imports or for very small levels of imports, but I think it is something we ought to look at for the major volume sales in this country.

We need to work hard on constructing new roadside stops for truck drivers. There are new rules that have been put in place in relation to requiring them to have rest stops, but we do not have the rest stops in place—they are not constructed. That is true on the national highway, but it is particularly true on the state roads. A truck driver is obliged to stop. There is no defence in some states for the fact that there is no road stop available; they are still expected to stop. But, if there is no safe place for them to have their rest break, those laws seem to be a bit unreasonable. In reality, what we have to do is put in the capital to make sure that the rest stops are built so that the regular rest breaks that truck drivers are expected to have can in fact occur. We need something like 500 new roadside stops for truck drivers to meet the standards and there needs to be a significant and continuing program to get those truck stops built.

The Australian Road Assessment Program measures the safety level of highways and is generally supported by the states. Some states have been less enthusiastic than others, but it has been a good program for identifying the roads that need particular attention. We should extend that also to some of the major secondary freight routes, which are sometimes under state control, again so we can be aware of the danger spots and concentrate expenditure in those areas. I welcome the establishment of this safety council. I hope it will take a leadership role in identifying areas where more things can be done. Governments will need to then back those areas with the financial resources to undertake appropriate programs. But there needs to be a national commitment to take very seriously the issue of road safety. The United Nations is proposing a decade of road safety from 2011, and Australia should participate in that program, particularly following our own decade of safety activities. (Time expired)