Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor government's plan to slash speed limits on rural roads in poor condition is an outrageous, lazy solution to a serious issue facing rural and regional people across the country. Labor minister Catherine King is proposing to reduce speed limits on dirt, gravel or sealed roads in need of repair in response to the worsening national road toll. This 'solution' will halt regional productivity and will not address one of the root causes of the problem—that is, road underfunding and road deterioration.

Across the Flynn electorate, poor road conditions remain one of the most prominent issues that locals are facing, with plenty of roads in need of repair. The solution to help make our rural roads safer is to maintain, upgrade and improve the roads themselves, not slow down regional productivity. I urge local transport operators, small businesses, farmers and councils to make submissions to the government's consultation before the 10 November closing date about how their communities would be impacted by speed limit reductions on rural, regional and remote Australian roads.

A constituent of mine named Darren, who has extensive experience in setting speed limits as a former crash investigator, recently forwarded his submission to my office—and he hit the nail on the head. His submission stated:

Living in a rural location in Queensland I am well aware of the tyranny of distance. Most of the people advocating lower limits live in urban areas and have no real appreciation of the amount of time rural people spend on the road accessing basic services, so any reduction in speed limits will have a major impact on rural residents.

Fining rural residents for traveling at fair speeds will result in many losing their licences from demerit point accumulation which means they will no longer be able to live in these areas as driving is the only transport option available.

Then there are the economic costs. Travel times equate to real costs to the economy. Given the huge distances in rural Australia even slight changes in speed limits can result in substantial inflation of transport costs and lost productivity due to time spent traveling.

Regional Australia's economy is on the line here. The government has an obligation to protect the lives of every Australian, so they should get on with it and fund rural and regional roads. Submissions can be made through the Australian government's Infrastructure website or by emailing officeofroadsafety@infrastructure.gov.au. I implore the minister to reassess this crazy notion of limiting speed on these rural and regional roads.