Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on this motion in relation to road safety—in particular, the collection of road safety data to improve our roads and systems. I speak quite often about my time in the police force: 12 years. They were immensely enjoyable years. But some of the toughest times and one of the toughest things I had to do—and I remember every single occasion when I had to do it—is knocking on the door in the middle of the night and telling a mum, a dad, a sister or a brother that their family member was dead. It's absolutely crushing. You can't imagine the grief—the sheer, raw grief—a family member experiences when you deliver that message. And right now that message is being delivered every single day three to four times a day. A police officer is walking up to somebody's front door, knocking on that door and telling that family member, that loved family member, that someone has died due to road trauma.

When I got into this place, I was determined to try and do something to improve the figures—the 1,300 or more lives that are being lost on our roads every year. It was an absolute honour to be the chair of the road safety committee when we were in government. We held many inquiries, and I was fortunate enough to go to Sweden for the third international road safety conference. The common thread throughout all of the inquiries through the international conference was the importance of collecting road safety data and sharing that data. It struck me as quite bizarre that the states and territories are protective of their own data and don't share it with each other or the federal government and federal agencies. What is the point of clinging onto data that could change or save someone's life or save somebody from being injured? Because that data is not shared for that information to come through, we on all levels of government—the federal government, state government, local governments—can't use that data to identify the places where people are being killed, identify what the problems are that are leading to people being killed or seriously injured.

Two years ago this Labor government—I'm not going to be political; we need to be bipartisan—committed to working with the states and territories to collect that data to share with everyone. We need hospitals to do this. We need police to do this. We need ambulance to do this as well. We need a central database to share with each other to improve outcomes and to save lives.

In my electorate alone, road deaths are five times higher than in metropolitan cities per capita. We know that 70 per cent of deaths on the road occur in regional and rural areas. That data is critical, and I urge this government to compel the states and the territories to share that data, to work with the federal government to have it there so that we can make informed changes and so that we can use taxpayers' money—it's not government money; it's taxpayers' money—to improve the roadways and the systems to look after our young lives, mums and dads, and tradies going to work. I call on the government to do this today. We have to demand and agree to consistently provide crash data, road data and enforcement data. Until we do, nothing will change.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

No Australian should have to answer a knock at the door to hear that a loved one has lost their life on our roads. Such tragic loss of life is devastating for families and for our communities. That's why the Albanese government is taking action, with a collaborative approach to this issue, working with all levels of government and the community. We know that state and local government play a particularly important role, managing more than three-quarters of our nation's roads. Our government's National Road Safety Strategy and National Road Safety Action Plan reflect this, setting out key priorities for action across all levels of government, including road trauma reduction targets for the decade to 2030.

Our targets are ambitious but necessary. We want to reduce fatalities by 50 per cent and serious injuries by 30 per cent by 2030, a goal that will drive us toward Vision Zero by 2050. As a part of that plan, the Albanese government is taking unprecedented steps to respond to the concerning increase in road trauma noted in the member's motion. The government announced in April this year, in an historic first, that each of the state and territory governments has signed an intergovernmental road safety data-sharing agreement. This is a vital step towards improving road safety and something the Albanese government has been working tirelessly to achieve.

Road safety data is essential to understanding where and why road accidents occur. The Commonwealth will look to improve data sharing from the state through upcoming Federation Funding Agreement negotiations. For the first time, we will seek to include a provision in this negotiated agreement with the states that will create a requirement for the provision of nationally consistent datasets. This is a pivotal step towards harmonising, collecting, storing and sharing road safety datasets. To support this effort, the Albanese government has committed $21 million to the National Road Safety Data Hub to support enhanced evidence based road safety strategies to eliminate road trauma by 2050.

This new data-sharing agreement establishes the critical foundation to enable increased data sharing and collaboration between all Australian governments into the future. It will also pave the way for non-government researchers and other organisations to request access to national road safety data to support their work in creating more effective road safety policy and interventions. This newly signed agreement formalises the ongoing data-sharing arrangements between jurisdictions for road crash data currently collected from jurisdictions and outlines new terms of use for the sharing of road safety data. Initially the data-sharing agreement will formalise and standardise existing data-sharing agreements for road crash data currently collected from jurisdictions. It will also create the mechanism to increase data sharing over time as further datasets are identified and agreed for inclusion.

This is the first opportunity our government has had to act on the data through these intergovernmental agreements, and it comes after years of inaction by the previous coalition government. I note that the motion put forward by the member for Barker fails to mention the former coalition government's egregious neglect of road infrastructure and road safety systems. They had a decade to address road safety in Australia. They had a decade to make lasting, meaningful change with data collection. But, instead, they neglected the urgent need for reform.

Following our announcement, the Australian Automobile Association said that it was the most significant road safety reform in decades. Like the AAA, our government understands that data can highlight where best to target road safety funding. We understand that accurate and consistent data will help save lives and ensure all levels of government can identify and invest in road safety projects that will make the biggest difference. Australian families deserve action. We call on all states to provide their data so we can all do better and save lives. Our government will continue to act as we combat the increase in deaths on our roads.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

First of all, I commend the member for Barker for putting this motion on road safety forward for discussion. Road safety is one of those areas that so many communities and so many individuals are impacted by. A road accident is one of those terrible events that can just reach out of everyday life, take someone before their time and destroy a family. I have listened to the speakers before me, particularly the member for Cowper, who is a former police officer, as I am. We know only too well what that looks like, and we don't want anyone else to be exposed to that if possible. That's why there is a goal around road safety that is striving for zero deaths. There are people working hard, and it is the case that, as the saying goes, road safety is everyone's responsibility. What we need, though, is for the states and territories to act responsibly in this fight against road deaths and start sharing the very critical information that they have. Much of it they keep secret at the moment, which is quite extraordinary.

We are living in the middle of a genuine crisis. We had 1,237 people lose their lives last year, and we still have around 40,000 people every year being seriously injured. Is that not enough for governments of all persuasions, at all levels, to say, 'We will do everything that we possibly can'? For some reason, states and territories are saying: 'No. We want to hoard our information relating to causal factors, injuries, road design, road ratings.' Only recently, and only through a freedom-of-information request, was I able to get some up-to-date data around road ratings, and it certainly did paint a very horrible, poor picture of the roads in Queensland. The vast majority of the roads are two-star-rated roads. They are killer roads. Very few are five-star-rated roads, the safest rating. But this is the information that should be readily available to everyone who's working in the space of road safety, not hoarded, effectively, by politicians who are afraid that they won't be able to make an announcement in a particular area because it's not justified, and that will stop pork-barrelling. Well, people are dying, and we need to put every effort into solving this. Sharing data is a good place to start.

The Labor Party came into power after the last election making a commitment that they were going to do this, they were going to cause data to be shared, pulling the levers that they have, particularly around infrastructure spending. And they have made some progress; I will say that. As previous speakers have said, we need to be as bipartisan as possible. But it is the job of those who hold the government to account to point out where they are failing. There have been failings in relation to road safety—particularly around the amount of money that has been given to states, and around the Bruce Highway in my state.

When we left government, the federal government's contribution was 80 per cent, and the states' was 20. Recently, the Labor government, at a federal level, changed that to 50 per cent from the states and 50 per cent from the Commonwealth. This is not a good decision for road safety. This is a decision that will see important infrastructure projects that would save lives put on the backburner. There's no accountability around that spending. It's put into a pool; it's not being put directly into projects, as we had been doing.

Road safety is everyone's responsibility. I call on the states to do what they should and share their data. (Time expired)

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd, first of all, like to thank the member for Barker for moving this motion. Road safety is an issue that I feel very, very strongly about. The member for Barker and I have very little in common politically, but I know that he feels very deeply about this issue. And I agree with him: this is something that requires bipartisanship. We shouldn't politicise it at all.

My electorate of Macarthur has many roads running through it, with major highways, such as the Hume Highway, Camden Valley Way, Narellan Road, Raby Road, Picton Road, and the infamous Appin Road, which are narrow but major arterial roads that are bordered by trees, all of which pose a great threat to motorists and wildlife alike. These roads are used by hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors to our region every week, and, sadly, accidents are becoming more common—often with serious injuries and, I'm sad to say, fatalities.

Some roads are the responsibility of local councils; some are operated by the New South Wales government; some are federal government roads. This causes a lot of problems for residents and stakeholders alike when it comes to delivering the funding and upgrades. Appin Road is one example of this, as it has been considered a New South Wales government road. Given its length and the complexity of connecting us to the Illawarra and Southern Highlands, the need for urgent safety upgrades is quite obvious to everyone who lives in the area. But dealing with all the different levels of government has made it very difficult.

The federal government recently has provided some much-needed funding to upgrade Appin Road to make it safe, and I'm very pleased about this. The minister, Catherine King, has been very good about seeing the urgency of action, and I'm very pleased. After years of federal and New South Wales coalition governments ignoring not just my pleas but the pleas of residents, wildlife groups and various stakeholders, I'm proud that our federal government and the Minns New South Wales government are showing leadership and have begun to upgrade Appin Road, after countless deaths.

Further, I took the opportunity to also welcome the minister for local government to Macarthur the other week. We visited sites in Macarthur which have received funding as part of the Roads to Recovery Program, improving safety upgrades to our local roads. We've provided $26 million to the Campbelltown council, $21 million to the Camden city council and similar amounts to the Wollondilly and Liverpool councils.

I've also campaigned very strongly for a national road data collection hub, and, much like the member for Barker, I agree that there is a need for data collected by the states and territories to be collated into a single national system. It's very important. This will help governments better understand where and how funds can be allocated for vital upgrades and other safety measures. Given the fact that deaths on our national roads are actually increasing, it has been welcomed by major Australian road safety advocates, and I particularly thank the Australian Automobile Association for their tireless agitation to have a national road safety database. I'd also like to thank my friend and colleague Dr John Crozier, a trauma surgeon from Liverpool Hospital, who has been a really important national advocate for better road safety data.

I'd like to add one final note, and it is of a personal nature to me. I, sadly, lost a very good friend of mine, Dr Mark Henschke, in 2022, when he was tragically hit and killed by a garbage truck while cycling. Together with his brother Ian, I worked with the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, as well as the Transport Workers Union, to get implementation of better safety measures on trucks and large vehicles.

I'm grateful that, in September last year, our government announced serious changes to the national road vehicle standards, to ensure safer trucks and large vehicles in Australia; that has been done and that will dramatically improve our road trauma data. These safety measures include the implementation of devices to reduce blind spots, electronic stability control for large vehicles, advanced emergency braking, a lane departure warning system, better reflective markings and side guards to stop pedestrians and cyclists from being caught up under the rear wheels of trucks. It really saddens me that these were not already implemented, as they could have prevented Mark's death. I'm pleased to know that our government has taken action to address this issue of pedestrian and cyclist deaths on our roads by introducing these very important safety measures. We will look to improve our safety measures in the future. This requires better data, and I'm hopeful that our government will continue to sponsor these very important road safety measures.

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

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Barker. The newest statistics on deaths on our roads are unfortunately heading in the wrong direction. The latest data that has been recorded from January to April this year tragically informs us that 1,310 Australian lives have been lost on our roads in this four-month period. This is an increase of 132 souls compared to the same period last year. The Australian Automobile Association tracks the targets of the Commonwealth government's National Road Safety Strategy, or NRSS, 2021 to 2030. This tracking is revealing that these targets, such as halving road deaths by 2030, are veering way off course.

I want to acknowledge all those people and families who have been affected by motor vehicle accidents, those who have suffered an injury or, worse still, those who have lost a loved one in a motor vehicle accident—people like Kent and Kylie Payne in my electorate of Longman, who tragically lost their son Harrison, or Harry, as he was more affectionately known. Harry's life was tragically taken on 30 May 2021 when he was thrown from a four-wheel-drive vehicle as a passenger on the beach at Bribie Island when the driver was driving in a dangerous and reckless manner. He was just 18 years old. His death was senseless and completely preventable. I have had various meetings with Harry's family and attended the Deadlift for Harry day at his beloved World Gym at Burpengary, which, along with so many local businesses in Longman, continues to support the Payne family to raise awareness and funds and hopefully prevent other families from enduring the heartache and loss that they have suffered.

At the event held recently, I was given the honour of saying a few words. I want to reiterate in this place the words that I spoke that day in acknowledging and commending the entire Payne family and their willingness to invest so much time, energy, money and passion into this initiative birthed from such a painful circumstance. Most people, when they lose a child, go into their shell and are reluctant to speak about it after a grieving period, let alone reopen that wound over and over. These people, like the Morcombe family, are a rare type of individual. I thank God for their courage, and I know their efforts will not be in vain. They will save lives.

Like so many things we do in government, we are reactive rather than proactive. If we educate our young drivers as they begin the part of their lives where they get behind the wheel of a vehicle, we can surely prevent many of these senseless deaths. I want to see a driver education centre in the Longman community so that schools and parents have the opportunity for every teenager to go through a course that would teach them how to operate a vehicle responsibly and to actually hear from the families and individuals that have suffered loss or injury through motor vehicle accidents. Many times, it is simply that our young people don't understand the dangers associated with driving what is potentially a deadly weapon, not only to themselves but also to fellow road users. Providing a facility that provides hands-on experience, as well as an environment that encourages an open discussion with law enforcement and those from the medical and trauma professions along with families of victims and those who have injuries sustained from road accidents, will go a long way to preventing more accidents in the future. I also want to acknowledge the Rotary Club of Caboolture and their efforts in delivering the road safety rider awareness program RYDA to high school students in our local community.

There is a saying in business: what gets measured gets improved. As so often happens in our country made up of six states and territories, the data that is collected by governments at a state and territory level is not shared with the Commonwealth. So federal governments are not making decisions with the most accurate and up-to-date data, simply because data sharing is not forced or a fait accompli between all levels of government. I simply cannot understand this mentality or the rationale behind this thinking. Surely all levels of government, regardless of party, would want to reduce the road toll and would be willing to do anything, like sharing data, to ensure this happens. This Labor federal government committed in the 2022 election campaign to cooperate with states and territories to ensure this data was being shared, but to date we are seeing little in results. I implore this Labor government: no more talking. The people of my electorate of Longman and of Australia want action so more Australian lives are not unnecessarily lost on our roads.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm glad that road safety is a bipartisan issue. I thank and praise those members who have shared stories of loved ones and communities to remind us of the importance of road safety right across our country. I do find some of the premise of this debate a little disingenuous because, of course, in our most recent federal budget we as a government have committed $21 million for a national road safety data hub to support enhanced evidence based road safety strategies to eliminate road trauma by 2050. We are also working in collaboration with the states and territories in the collection of road safety data, which I note that those opposite have said they'd like to see, and we are actually getting it done.

We have, in a historic first, signed every single state and territory government in Australia on to the intergovernmental road safety data sharing agreement. It seems to be, essentially, what this motion is asking for and something the Albanese Labor government is working to deliver. I really hope that the motivation here in an important motion on road safety data is not to score political points, because that would be a great shame. Road safety is and should always be beyond politics. Road safety is about saving lives and preventing serious injuries, and we have consistently prioritised road safety in government.

When we came into government there was no finalised road safety action plan. The former coalition government did not bother to finalise a road safety action plan. Their neglect led to a two-year delay in crucial work on data sharing, collection and reporting. Since we have been in government, we have been implementing the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 underpinned by the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023–2025 in collaboration with all states, territories and local governments.

A key action under this plan is for road safety data to be efficiently exchanged and published. All states and territories have agreed to this plan and have signed on to share their road safety data, ensuring a nationally consistent dataset. This is a vital step forward in improving road safety and is something that the Albanese government has been working tirelessly to achieve. All of this work is pivotal towards harmonising, collecting, storing and sharing road safety datasets.

Every single death on Australian roads is a great tragedy. The Albanese government is committed to working with all levels of government to reduce Australia's road toll and work towards Vision Zero—that is, zero fatalities and zero serious injuries on our roads by 2050. This is ambitious, and we take this work very seriously. In response to a worsening road toll, we held a national road safety conference in April this year, bringing together more than 100 road safety stakeholders, to identify a range of government and industry actions that can target the road toll. This conference also included the first joint meeting between police and road safety ministers, and a set of actions to target the road toll was endorsed there. In this year's budget, we have doubled the Roads to Recovery funding, from $500 million to $1 billion in a year. We've also increased the funding for the blackspot program, which is progressively rising from $110 million to $150 million per year.

Road safety is a shared responsibility across all levels of government and the community, and it really matters to our communities. Our government will continue our work investing in evidence-based road safety measures, because we know how important this is and we take community safety seriously.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I must draw the attention of the House to the fact that the crossbenchers are in charge. I am greatly honoured to serve with such handsome, extremely intelligent people. They have excellent intellects, and they actually use their intellects as well. I pay that tribute to the honourable leader of the House this evening.

Moving on, Queensland is an interesting state because we have a million people ruled by a government 2,000 kilometres away. Now, I'm not aware of anywhere on earth where people are ruled by a government 2,000 kilometres away. Some of us are 3,000 kilometres away. This illustrates the complete failure of democracy to take into account distance—which is taken into account in every other country on earth, by the way, except Australia, including Canada—with Nunatsiavut, the Eskimos get a special member of parliament—and in the Orkney Isles in Britain.

Brisbane has a population of 1.2 million, and North Queensland is near enough to one million in population. So the population of Brisbane and North Queensland are the same. I'm saying Brisbane—not the Sunshine Coast or the Gold Coast but Brisbane. Brisbane has 36 kilometres of tunnels; we have none at all. During this recent cyclone, Cairns was completely cut off—300,000 people were completely cut off. You couldn't get in by sea; the sea was too rough. You couldn't get in by helicopter or aeroplane because of the cyclonic winds. All three roads were hopelessly cut. The member Shane Knuth and I climbed down one of the holes in the main exit highway, and the hole was 20 foot deep. So we were trapped. Brisbane gets 36 kilometres of tunnels; we get none. What is going on here? The Liberals found a thousand million dollars for a pleasure dome for themselves in Brisbane, whilst people were dying.

From 2001 to 2017 the Kuranda Range Road, the main highway connecting the inland with Cairns—the Kuranda billy goat track, as it's called—had seven-hour closures 44 times a year over the last 16 years, if you like. It's not the last 16 years, because they've stopped giving out the figures. I can't blame them! Those seven-hour stoppages occurred 44 times a year. There has been 867 incidents, with 556 people hospitalised and 45 deaths, and still nothing is done about it. Yet they can find $36 billion for tunnels in Brisbane, but when we need a kilometre and a half—about a thousand million dollars—we get nothing at all. That is the situation, until we the KAP get the balance of power. Then we'll see what happens. That will happen real quick.

The Bridle Track tunnel will cut the time from the Atherton Tablelands, where there are 60,000 people. It will cut the time from Mareeba to the Cairns CBD from an hour and 20 minutes down to 26 minutes. Infinitely more important, actually, is the fact of the deaths. Almost as important is the fact that the great mineral province of Far North Queensland, the Chillagoe mineral province, cannot be opened up because we can't get the product out. It was bigger than the North West Minerals Province, which now produces $8,000 million a year of export earnings for Australia, but we can't get our product out because our port is cut off. We can't get to it. You can't get to it in a truck.

What we're saying is the Bridle Track tunnel was originally drafted by the pioneers. Martin Tenni's grandfather was a state member and minister who was determined to get this tunnel built, but he left parliament, unfortunately, before he got it built. It still needs to be done. In its infinite wisdom, the state government spent $2,000 million on the highway between Gordonvale and Cairns. I don't know what we achieved, really. Yes, it's a better and safer road, but a tunnel is needed. (Time expired)

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

If there's one topic that should be above politics, it's our road toll. No words can describe the pain felt by a family member or a friend impacted by a death or a serious injury on our roads. Every death on Australian roads is a tragedy and much more than just a statistic. Each casualty is a friend and might be a mother, a father or a child. The trauma of their loss echoes through the community and echoes through generations.

Territorians know this all too well. Thirty lives have been lost so far this calendar year, compared to just six last year, so things aren't tracking well. The Territory's road toll per capita is three times higher than the rest of Australia. Just this weekend past, we had eight traffic accidents, with 17 Territorians needing to be hospitalised or receive health care. Particularly today—if anyone happens to be listening—Territory Day, when everyone is having a good time and celebrating self-government, but also every day, please slow down on the roads. Please do not drink and drive. Pedestrians, keep off the roads.

As the federal government, we are getting on with implementing the National Road Safety Strategy. This is underpinned by the National road safety action plan 2023-2025, which is in collaboration with all the states and territories and our local governments. I acknowledge the work of our local governments when it comes to maintaining our road network, because they manage the lion's share of it. From my federal seat of Solomon, we have several members of both the City of Darwin and the City of Palmerston down here in Canberra, so it is a big week down here in Canberra for local governments. I wish them well and acknowledge their work.

I also acknowledge the Albanese federal Labor government's work on Roads to Recovery funding, which we are doubling from $500 million to $1 billion. I chair the local black spots committee in the Northern Territory, so I'm pleased that we've also substantially increased funding for the Black Spot Program, which is rising from $110 million to $150 million per year.

This motion calls for data collection and collaboration with the states and territories. Well, our road safety action plan is already linked to data collection arrangement with the states and territories. We are a cooperative and collaborative government, which is in our DNA, and I think Australians have already seen that through the National Cabinet. This is a key action under our plan for road safety data to be efficiently exchanged and published, a vital step forward to improving road safety and something that our Albanese federal government has been working tirelessly to achieve.

Moreover, a few months ago in April, in an historic first, each of the state and territory governments signed an intergovernmental road safety data sharing agreement. The Commonwealth will look to improve data sharing from the states and territories through our upcoming federation funding agreement negotiations as well. For the first time, we'll seek to include, in this negotiated agreement with the states, a requirement for the provision of a nationally consistent dataset.

But we're putting our money where our mouth is to support this effort. Our government has committed $21 million to the National Road Safety Data Hub to support enhanced evidence-based road safety strategies to eliminate road trauma by 2050. The government is committed to delivering a nationally harmonised set of high-quality and timely data, which will inform our already comprehensive road safety measures aimed at realising this Vision Zero target—that is, zero fatalities and zero serious injuries on our roads. In short, our government is already doing what the member for Barker has moved in this motion. (Time expired)

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) | Link to this | 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)

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.