Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government's ongoing commitment to improving road safety through the establishment of the Road Safety Program (RSP);

(2) recognises that the RSP supports the fast roll out of lifesaving road safety treatments on rural and regional roads and greater protection for vulnerable road users, like cyclists and pedestrians, in urban areas;

(3) commends the Government for its funding in the recent budget to provide $3 billion over three years from 2020-21; and

(4) acknowledges the 'use it or lose it' provision as part of the funding, requiring states and territories to use their funding within each six month tranche in order to receive their full allocation of funding for the next tranche, unless exceptional circumstances exist.

It's with great pleasure that I rise to speak on this motion that talks about the Road Safety Program that this government that has rolled out. The government recognises the importance of this rollout to improving road safety treatments across rural and regional roads, giving greater protection for vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians in urban areas. When we look at the funding envelope of some $3 billion over three years from 2021, we're not just talking about the importance of road safety; we're actually putting in place the necessary dollars to deliver it. Importantly, we are also putting in place a requirement for the state governments to get on with the job of delivering these safety projects.

This commitment is part of our $110 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline, and across my electorate of Forde it has been very, very well received. As we look at these infrastructure projects, particularly on roads like Beaudesert-Beenleigh Road and Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road in my electorate of Forde, we see that the importance of road safety can never be understated. With both of those roads, I know that over the years there have been many, many very serious accidents, which have cost lives. But also, importantly, these accidents have permanently damaged people's lives—they might not have died but might have had lifelong injuries and may have needed to recover from these. We saw only recently, not on one of these roads but on one of the smaller side roads, a very sad accident in difficult conditions where a family lost their mother. Julia May was a very well-respected member of the community at one of our local schools, and that has had an impact on the school and on the broader community.

Each and every day we see the importance of road safety. I can say, quite safely, that anyone in this House would agree with the importance of that. Between them, these two particular roads in my electorate of Forde are seeing investments in the order of approximately $30 million. In addition, Tamborine-Oxenford Road is getting an update at Howard Creek that will lift the bridge and change the profile of the corner on what's an increasingly busy road. This will reduce the flooding impact on that road. More importantly, it will increase the safety. Also, through some of the heavy vehicle safety improvements in the Yatala Enterprise Area, we're seeing upgrades to Darlington Road and Computer Road. These are part of a growing industrial area. It is important not only to get freight in and out of the area safely but also that people are able to get to work safely. These projects are happening together with the big infrastructure projects that we're completing at exit 41 and exit 49, the M1 upgrades from the Logan Motorway all the way through to the Gateway Motorway, and the upgrades to the Mount Lindesay Highway, a $75 million investment jointly funded by the commonwealth and state governments.

Across the electorate of Forde, these road safety programs are making a real, tangible difference to people's lives. Equally, across the country we are seeing these upgrades make a difference, whether it's shoulder sealing, audiotactile line marking, improvements to shoulders for cyclists who use those roads, wider centre line treatments that keep cars and trucks physically more separated on the road or improvements to our road barriers—rather than having just the Armco barrier with the railing at the top, having a panel underneath so that, if a motorcyclist has an accident, they're not sliding underneath the Armco railing and getting more severely injured. All of these might appear to be small things, but they make a big, big difference in the event of an accident. Also, we're seeing in many parts the removal of vegetation that is in dangerous places along the sides of roads. In a number of places along these roads, we have seen additional Armco safety barriers put in place. Making our roads safer is a critical component in reducing deaths and serious injuries. I commend the government for the work that it's doing.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is such an important motion. Road safety is so important for many. Yesterday was the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a shocking reminder that each year 1.2 million to 1.3 million people lose their lives to traffic accidents globally. In Australia road trauma stubbornly persists as the leading cause of death for people aged one to 14, despite various efforts from government and community groups to shift the dial. As we come to the end of the parliamentary sitting calendar, we are also approaching holiday season. With international travel opportunities still limited, our roads are likely to be busier than ever, with people taking their holidays domestically and enjoying long-awaited trips. It means that we all need to be especially careful when it comes to road safety. While vast improvements have been made to the safety of our roads, through investments in upgrades and changes to speed limits, especially around schools, we need to be mindful of where schoolchildren go and play when they are not in school, when they are on holidays.

In my electorate of Warringah, two of my constituents have launched an organisation, Little Blue Dinosaur, that targets precisely that issue. The Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation was launched following the tragic death of their four-year-old son Tom in a pedestrian road accident on the Central Coast in 2014. The message 'Slow down; kids around' is an essential one that must be heard on every street, in every city and town. It's especially important in holiday time to remember where kids are likely to be playing. The Holiday Time campaign led by Little Blue Dinosaur is an important initiative, and it's great to see that over 63 local government areas, including the Northern Beaches Council in my electorate, have signed up to the initiative. The signs are bright and colourful to encourage conversations with children about road safety. There are also media and educational campaigns along with the signage. We need to be hypervigilant, especially with children 10 years and under. Little Blue Dinosaur have found that the cognitive development of children 10 years and under is still growing, and, when you call them to stop, their reflexes aren't there to stop immediately. Little Blue Dinosaur were recently awarded a grant to collaborate with the University of New South Wales to analyse data on road accidents and develop a pilot program to be rolled out across seven local government areas. More needs to be done to promote safety on our roads. Between January 2014 and July 2021, 430 young people were killed in road trauma incidents. I encourage all councils, especially those in holiday destinations, to sign up to the Holiday Time initiative and promote the brightly coloured signs alerting drivers to the presence of children near beaches, parks and campgrounds.

I would also like to highlight the important work to improve active transport and pedestrian safety around schools in Warringah. Nearly $3 million has been spent on upgrading pedestrian safety and active transport links around schools in the Northern Beaches Council area alone. It's great to see the completion of work around the Mackellar girls high school, and I look forward to seeing the improvements around the future site of Forest High School, Harbord Public School, St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School, Curl Curl North Public School and Manly selective high school. It's a huge benefit to our community, making roads and transport safer for pedestrians and cyclists. It's key to building a greater sense of community and encouraging active lifestyles. To promote active travel and public transport has both environmental and health benefits due to increased physical activity. The Centre for Urban Research has found the number of Australian children walking or cycling to school has halved over the past 40 years, with less than a third now regularly walking or cycling to school. So we need to improve road safety, build walkable neighbourhoods, increase investment in cycling infrastructure and education and coordinate active transport and public transport provisions to turn this around.

I thank the member for Forde for bringing forward this important and timely motion. I urge all Australians, especially now, as we come out of many months of lockdown, as you travel around the country this holiday season, please be mindful of who you're sharing the roads with. Think about walking or riding rather than driving. Look out for children and remember Tom's words: 'Slow down; kids around.' Road safety is something that we need to keep working on. There are many aspects to road safety, whether it's in regional areas or in urban areas, but all need to have the attention of government and need more development.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Morrison government is continuing to deliver safer and better roads and infrastructure across Australia. Nation-building extensive infrastructure projects have been a constant of Liberal-National governments over the last eight years and a hallmark of our vision of a connected Australia that really works. This has continued in the past two budgets through the global COVID-19 pandemic, creating more jobs, while boosting aggregate demand and locking in our economic recovery.

In the most recent budget, an additional $1.1 billion has been committed to continue road safety upgrades through the Road Safety Program in 2022-23, bringing the fund to a total of $3 billion. This will mean an increase of more than $500 million in funding for my home state of Victoria to be provided on a use-it-or-lose-it basis and directly tied to the outcome of improving road safety. Across the country this significant program is applying life-saving road treatments where they are needed most.

The first tranche of works under the program, which is now underway, is upgrading more than 6,000 kilometres of road around the nation—that's nearly the distance between Melbourne and Hong Kong where I am from—and is expected to support more than 13,000 jobs. Works include shoulder sealing, audio tactile line marking, central line treatments and barriers to protect against roadside hazards on high-risk state highways and arterial roads.

Any death or serious injury from a road crash is one too many. The Road Safety Program is just one part of this picture, delivering life-saving road safety treatments on rural and regional roads, and providing better protections for vulnerable road users. But our government is also supporting local councils across the country to deliver safer local roads and better local infrastructure through other important initiatives like the Roads to Recovery Program, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program and the Black Spot Program.

In my electorate of Chisholm this funding has resulted in many major wins for local communities. For example, in Blackburn, the Morrison government has provided $1.5 million in funding to replace the Main Street bridge. In Box Hill, we have provided financial backing so that council can carry out important safety improvements to the Station Street and Harold Street intersection. In Glen Waverley, we are fixing the Kingsway and Railway Parade North black spot and also funding major pedestrian safety improvements on the Kingsway. In Mount Waverley, we are addressing the concerns of locals on Lawrence Road and funding important safety upgrades to reduce local traffic speed. This will result in a safer neighbourhood for locals and local families, and a reduction in traffic noise, significantly improving residents' quality of life.

There are many more projects going on, but it's all about making Chisholm community, as well as communities across the country, safer and better places to live. It's all part of the Morrison government's record $110 billion, 10-year infrastructure pipeline to support locals and secure jobs, drive growth and help rebuild Australia's economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. I have no doubt that these investments will help to secure Australia's world-leading economic recovery and set us on the course for growth and prosperity for years to come.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on road safety, and I do so as someone who represents an electorate whose roads are deadly. The Bells Line of Road and the Great Western Highway present challenges for residents and visitors alike, partly because of the heavy truck and vehicle usage they have as they take people to and from the Central West. In the space of a few days our region recently saw the loss of three lives on our roads, and our hearts have gone out to the families of all three. One was a gentleman in his 70s who was killed at Mount Tomah in a truck accident as he was heading out to visit family as lockdown lifted. The others were young women going to or from work.

Gemma Thompson, a science teacher, was travelling from her Blaxland home to the school she taught at, Bede Polding College in South Windsor. It was an accident involving a truck. The truck driver has been charged with dangerous driving. I didn't know Gemma, but my son did, as did one of my staff, so I've learned a little about her. Her principal, Mark Compton, echoed the devastation of the school community and described her as 'a generous, vibrant and dynamic young woman'. My son got to know Gemma and her fiance, Max, through a flatmate, and apparently Gemma, when she visited, couldn't work out how a Bede Polding breadboard had ended up in a house in the inner west. My son filled her in on the fact that Bede Polding breadboards are highly prized in our family, and Gemma was always amused when she saw that as she visited. Her loss just before her wedding is why we can never stop trying to make our roads and the people on them safer.

Another loss was Mackenzie Blake who was just 21. Mackenzie was walking home from work at Macca's in Blaxland when she was hit by a truck driven by a disqualified driver. He too has been charged with dangerous driving and several other charges. Mackenzie was Blue Mountains-born, and I knew her as Jordan's much-loved little sister at the soccer matches he and my son played. They lived around the corner and their mum, Tracy, and I would hang out on the sidelines. She, Jordan and older brother Rowan, who both went on to join the Defence Force, are devastated at her loss. Tracy says, 'Mackenzie had her heart set on working with animals, which she loved.' And she wants her to be remembered for the impact that she made on people during her short life. She was known by everyone to be kind and caring, and her loss is really felt. On the day of her funeral I joined Peter Frazer, who established the SARAH Group to champion road safety after the death of his daughter, Sarah, who was killed by a truck driver nearly 10 years ago. We stood on the side of the Great Western Highway to pay tribute to Mackenzie, along with Mayor Mark Greenhill and Councillor Brendan Christie and many dozens of others wearing yellow or bearing yellow flowers.

Peter Frazer has worked tirelessly since Sarah's death to make sure roads are built the way they should be, and every government has a responsibility to support and fund that. He also says that driver behaviour needs more focus. He wants to see road fatalities talked about not as statistics but as people, which is what I've tried to do today. I want them to be remembered. Peter feels the best way to honour those who've been killed is to stand in solidarity, put yellow ribbons on vehicles and in workplaces, get people to be road safety champions and get people to tell their stories. As he says, 'Everyone has the right to get home safely to their loved ones every single day.'

When it comes to building infrastructure so that it does save lives, we actually have an opportunity to do that in Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains. The plan for the proposed tunnel underneath Blackheath has drivers suddenly emerging above ground to travel through the hamlet of Medlow Bath. It's beyond me why the federal and state governments refuse to consider the community's calls for the tunnel to be extended. If they were serious about protecting lives, this is a place where staying underground could really make a difference. On long weekends—particularly in cooler months, when the traffic is high—accidents, too often resulting in a tragic loss of life, are reported really regularly on this stretch. Here's where the federal government could put its words into action and support the Medlow Bath community and all those who travel through it.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Any death from a road crash is one too many. We've seen too many families left shattered and devastated by the death of a loved one as a result of a road accident. We also cannot forget those who are suffering from long-term and life-changing injuries because of a road crash that should not have happened. Road crashes destroy lives. Every one of us—each level of government, every Australian—plays a vital role in ensuring the safety of people on our roads.

That is why the establishment of the Morrison government's Road Safety Program will be a vital step towards ensuring the safety of all Australians who use our roads, and I'm proud to be part of a government that is committed to protecting those on Australia's roads by increasing our investment in infrastructure and the effective monitoring of interventions. The Morrison government is making greater protection possible for rural and regional roads and for vulnerable road users, like cyclists and pedestrians, in urban areas in leaps and bounds because of the Road Safety Program, which is also expected to support around 13,500 jobs. Our country is a better place thanks to these sorts of essential government programs.

Millions of Australians use our roads every day—going to and from work, home to their family or to the beach for a day out on the weekends. We have truck drivers delivering necessary supplies from state to state, police patrolling our roads to keep the community safe, paramedics heading out in the ambulance to help sick patients, essential workers going about their daily commute, business owners opening their businesses for the day, Australian Defence Force personnel using the roads to go to and from training exercises, cyclists going for a ride on their bikes and pedestrians walking across the road for a cup of coffee or to get to work. They all deserve to be able to navigate around our roads and go about their day safely so that they can go home to their family safe and sound every day.

In this budget, an additional $1 billion has been committed to continue road safety upgrades through the Road Safety Program in 2022-23. This brings the fund to a total of $3 billion, which means $783 million for the state of Queensland, where my electorate is based. I have long been fighting for upgraded infrastructure and safer roads for my electorate of Longman because I know that the community will greatly benefit from some of the Road Safety Program funding—especially in the case of Bribie Island Road, which is used by many people every day and is currently undergoing upgrades. I would like to see more funding for the electorate of Longman for the life-saving road treatments where they are needed most, which includes shoulder sealing and audio tactile line marking, centre line treatments and barriers to protect against roadside hazards on high-risk state highways and arterial roads.

In addition to the Road Safety Program, the government's record $110 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline will support and secure jobs, drive growth and help rebuild Australia's economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. These investments form part of the Australian government's economic recovery plan and will secure Australia's world-leading economic recovery by delivering nation-building infrastructure projects, providing water security to inland Australia, meeting our national freight challenge and getting Australians home sooner and safer.

I'm glad to see that the Road Safety Program's funding is provided on a 'use it or lose it' basis and that it's directly tied to the outcome of improving road safety, requiring states and territories to use their funding within each six-month tranche in order to receive their full allocation of funding for the next tranche, unless exceptional circumstances exist. I believe that this will prevent long delays when it comes to getting on with building road infrastructure and ensure that road maintenance is carried out in a more timely fashion. I know that many people in Longman were left disappointed and dismayed by the amount of time it took to get started on the Bribie Island Road upgrade, which quite frankly wasn't acceptable. It was the same with the overpass at Narangba and Deception Bay, which, again, was delayed by a couple of years.

The first tranche of works under the program, which is currently underway now, is upgrading more than 6,000 kilometres of road around the nation, and, with our additional investment, this is a step in the right direction when it comes to protecting motorists and pedestrians who use our roads on a daily basis. We can only go up from here when it comes to making our roads safe. We do all this to aspire to achieve our ultimate goal—to never lose another life on our roads again.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.