Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like Senator Hutchins, I could talk about the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008 and roads and trucks for the next half-hour with a mouthful of marbles underwater. Time constraints are against us. I seek leave to incorporate my speech.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

I rise to speak in support of the AusLink (National Land Transport) Amendment Bill 2008. This bill amends the AusLink (National Land Transport) Act 2005.

The main Provisions of this bill are to:

• Amend the definition of ‘road’ contained in the AusLink (National Land Transport) Act 2005, and to
• Extend the Roads to Recovery program until 30 June 2014.

The legislation also makes clear that funds can be allocated under the Roads to Recovery program for use in a particular state whilst the most appropriate entity to finally receive the allocation is determined.

This will allow funds to be preserved whilst, for example, a decision is made on who should receive funds so as to provide roads in unincorporated areas where there is no local council, or to provide bridges and Aboriginal Access Roads in remote parts of a State.

The Roads to Recovery program provides much needed funding to local councils around Australia so they can make urgent repairs and upgrades to their roads. Funding is provided for both urban and rural roads.

Roads to Recovery program funds are provided in the form of grants directly to local government bodies. The focus of the program has been on the renewal of local roads to meet safety, transport connectivity, social and economic needs.

The program recognises that at any one time a significant proportion of local road infrastructure in Australia is about to reach the end of its useful life.

The level of required replacement of local road infrastructure is often beyond the capacity of local governments, particularly when you consider that local councils are responsible for more than three-quarters of all Australian roads amounting to over 810,000 kilometres of road, 19% of which is the responsibility of local governments in my home state of WA.

In a state the size of Western Australia the task of maintaining and upgrading essential road links, often over vast distances, is a huge.

Almost universally, local governments have endorsed the targeting of improved road safety as a major focus of the Roads to Recovery program. This is also a major target of the Rudd Government.

Having spent many thousands of hours in a previous life as a truckie and heavy vehicle owner/driver traversing the roads throughout Australia, I am more than aware of the problematic road conditions that drivers and operators of heavy vehicles, too often, have to contend with.

I am also more than aware of the risks that truckies face every day in doing their job because too many roads are not up to acceptable standards for today’s heavy haulage vehicles. This applies also to other essential road transport infrastructure such rest stops, truck parking bays and decoupling facilities.

Unsatisfactory road conditions affect heavy vehicle driver safety and other road user safety as well being a very significant drag on heavy transport haulage efficiency and productivity.

The Rudd Government learnt when it came into office that the National Road Safety Strategy target of a 40 percent reduction in road deaths by 2010 was unlikely to be achieved.

In fact the 2010 national target of 5.6 deaths per 100,000 that was agreed to by the previous government has turned out to be a figment of the previous government’s imagination. The eventual figure is likely to be much higher with the current rate sitting at 7.7.

This is an appalling situation which is made worse by the stance being taken by coalition Senators who are seemingly intent on blocking the flow of funds to enable the implementation of government initiatives specifically designed to improve heavy vehicle transport safety.

The message today in regard to heavy vehicle road crashes and fatalities is a stark one. It shows that there is substantial work to be done to turn the current situation around.

In 2007, there were over 200 road deaths in Australia involving heavy vehicles. In fact one in five road deaths involve heavy vehicles, with speed and fatigue being significant contributing factors.

In other words the heavy vehicle transport sector is a significant contributor to Australia’s road toll.

There are between 70,000 and 80,000 articulated trucks on the roads in Australia. The annual distanced travelled by these vehicles is approximately 3% of total vehicle kilometres travelled. On the other hand road fatalities each year involving these vehicles make up approximately 11% of total road fatalities. This latter percentage appears to increasing over time. In 2007 road fatalities involving an articulated truck increased by 5.4%.

Trucks as whole account for approximately 6% of total vehicles kilometres travelled but are involved in approximately 15% of all road fatalities.

Over the past five years over 1000 Australians have died as a result of a road accident involving a heavy truck, three quarters of these fatal accidents involved an articulated truck.

These are sobering statistics.

No wonder that truck road safety should be a concern to us all and not only to the trucking industry itself, and to my union, the Transport Workers Union.

This bill amends the definition of a road so that it includes heavy vehicle facilities such as rest stops, parking bays, decoupling facilities and electronic monitoring systems.

This amendment to the AusLink (National Land Transport) Act 2005 will enable the government to provide funding for these facilities under its $70 million Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity package. This package has the support of the Australian Trucking Association but apparently it doesn’t have the support of the coalition.

This says a whole lot about the coalition and the way it operates. It is apparently more than willing to put its political objectives ahead of providing a safer driving environment for thousands of truckies and other road users.

I remind Senators that road accidents cost the lives of over 1600 Australian annually. There can be absolutely no justification for blocking funding for a $70 million program aimed largely at reducing heavy vehicle road crashes.

The government’s four year Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Plan will fund:

• The construction of more heavy vehicle rest stops and parking areas along our highways and on the outskirts of our major cities;
• Upgrades to freight routes so they can carry bigger loads; and
• Trials of technologies that electronically monitor a truck driver’s work hours and vehicle speed - one using an onboard ‘black box’ or electronic log, and one which makes use of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

With speed a factor in around 30 per cent of heavy vehicles crashes and driver fatigue in up to 60 per cent, action to improve speed and fatigue enforcement is the key to achieving a substantial reduction in road deaths.

The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Package has been developed following consultations with the states and territories and stakeholders such as the Australian Trucking Association, Australian Livestock Transporters Association and NatRoads to identify the most urgently needed works.

The facilities that will be delivered under the heavy vehicle safety and productivity package will improve road safety and provide a better deal for truckies.

For example, numerous studies have shown that one of the leading factors that contribute to road crashes involving heavy trucks is driver fatigue. An important contributing factor to driver fatigue in Australia is the very long distances that many truckies have to travel to deliver their loads.

The need for appropriately spaced and adequately designed truck rest stops along Australia’s intrastate and interstate transport routes is essential. This has been recognised by local governments over a number of years in their use of Roads to Recovery Program funding. But much more still needs to done.

An audit of road side rest areas against National Guidelines conducted by Austroads and published in March this year found that sixty per cent of the audited routes had substantial deficiencies in the provision of rest opportunities. Furthermore none of the audited routes met the spacing requirements of the National Guidelines.

In my State of Western Australia, for example, the Austroad audit found that only 2 of the major rest areas on the road from Perth to the SA border are spaced closely enough to satisfy the National Guidelines and only 25% of the rest areas along the route were duplicated correctly on both sides of the road.

Overall the rest areas on the Western Australia road routes covered by the Austroads audit had an average compliance of 46% with recommended design and layout features. Obviously there is still a lot to be done along Australia’s transport routes.

As well as improving road safety, our Plan will help lift national productivity by funding upgrades to the road network such as the strengthening of bridges.

Targeted investment in the road network will open more roads to heavy vehicles, freeing up the movement of freight across the country and easing congestion.

Funding for the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Package is contingent on the passage of the enabling legislation for the 2007 Heavy Vehicle Charges Determination, which was unanimously endorsed by the Australian Transport Council of Commonwealth, state and territory transport ministers in February this year.

That legislation would ensure that the heavy vehicle industry pays its fair share of the infrastructure costs incurred by governments for building and maintaining the roads that they drive on.

This legislation has been blocked by the coalition in the Senate, even though the determination and policy was proposed by the former government.

In a speech given on 28 June 2007 entitled ‘The coalition government’s transport reform agenda’, the then federal transport minister and Leader of the Nationals said:

‘The National Transport Commission will develop a new heavy vehicle charges determination to be implemented from 1 July 2008.

The new determination will aim to recover the heavy vehicles’ allocated infrastructure costs in total and will also aim to remove cross-subsidisation across heavy vehicle classes.’

There is therefore absolutely no valid reason why the coalition should not support this bill and the 2007 Heavy Vehicle Charges Determination legislation to enable upgrades to be rolled out as soon as possible after 1 January 2009.

This bill also extends the Roads to Recovery program. Under the current Act, it will end on 30 June 2009. This bill will continue the program until 30 June 2014.

The continuation of this program means that local government can confidently plan for the continued improvement of their road network.

This amendment supports the government’s commitment to increase our investment under the Roads to Recovery program over the next five years. The government will increase the allocation from $300 million per year to $350 million per year.

This means that, over the next five years, the Rudd Government will provide $1.75 billion directly to councils to fix local transport issues.

As well the Rudd Government is not standing still in respect to other factors affecting Australia’s transport industry costs and productivity.

In particular, the Rudd Government is committed to regulatory reform to ensure that overly burdensome government regulation is tackled and addressed. The Government has already identified areas in the transport sector where regulatory reform has a large potential to reduce the cost to industry of state and commonwealth government regulation and which should act to improve transport industry productivity.

Top of the list of the government’s planned regulatory reforms is finally achieving national harmonised occupational health and safety laws, a key concern to the trucking industry.

There can be no doubt that there is need for a national approach if Australia is to have a seamless transport market. Through the Australian Transport Council, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and state transport ministers agreed in May this year to policy objectives and principles which underpin the Government’s National Transport Plan.

The National Transport Plan recognises that competitive and truly national transport markets will reduce costs for business and consumers, improve Australia’s productivity and the quality of life by better connecting Australians to their family and friends.

The National Transport Plan will encompass the existing COAG transport reform program. In addition, the Australian Transport Council has commissioned new work on a national registration scheme for trucks and a single national drivers licence for truck drivers. These reforms will cut red tape for drivers and transport businesses.

They will build on one of the major successes of past regulatory reform, the development of uniform national road rules by the National Road Transport Commission, now the National Transport Commission. The process continues, but we should acknowledge that much has been achieved.

The safety, efficiency and effectiveness of our road transport system is of concern to all Australians, to all who work in the sector and to members of the Australian Trucking Association, but it does not seem to be a matter of great concern or urgency to Coalition Senators who are apparently happy to stand in the path of better safety and improved productivity in a vital industry.

I am very proud to be a member of a Government that right from the start has given high priority to improving heavy truck road safety.

I am also proud to be a member of a trade union, the Transport Workers Union, that has been and continues to be, at the forefront of efforts to improve the working and safety conditions of road transport industry workers including owner/drivers .

I commend the bill to the Senate.