Senate debates

Thursday, 18 June 2020

Committees

Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee; Government Response to Report

4:00 pm

Photo of Alex GallacherAlex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the government response. At the outset, I would like to put on the record that the contribution from Senator Rice in this space has been longstanding and very valuable.

One of the things that is really difficult is what has actually happened with this report. We concluded a report in 2016, I believe; four years later we get a response—four years later a government response. The protocol is that a government response should come within three months. That's a high-hurdle rate but, seriously, four years? One of the recommendations, which has not been accepted, is that the National Transport Commission re-establish a national consultative committee on motorcycle safety. They don't accept that recommendation.

Let me tell you this: 518 motorcyclists have died since the report was handed in, and the government doesn't accept the recommendation that we should have another look at this space? Forty-one have died in my home state, so you've got to think they don't care. The revolving door of transport ministers, or whatever, may well have caused this delay in response, but to say you're not interested when 500 people have lost their lives? The awful reality is—and I wouldn't disagree with Senator Rice on much—deaths are cheap. You can quantify them. An insurance claim will come out. A funeral benefit will be paid. People and families will grieve for a long time, but they're quantifiable.

Serious injuries are unimaginably expensive. The cost to the economy for serious injuries is almost never-ending. We don't actually have a system in Australia where we can quantify that. We don't have a nationally recognised system where we know how many people we're seriously injuring. The economic cost is almost immeasurable added to the human cost.

I've got to say this: it's not easy to be supercritical of the other side because the Australian federal government has done this forever. Think how long it took to get seatbelts in motor vehicles and how long it took to legislate in each respective jurisdiction—nine years to get seatbelt legislation in each jurisdiction in Australia—when we were killing horrendous numbers of people. This is not news. What should be happening is: you have a really good go, a government inquiry, initiated by this government, and two or three eminent people, like Jeremy Woolley, John Crozier and Lauchlan McIntosh. They go out and do the work for you and give you a template of action. Whoever sits in the Deputy Prime Minister's office, or the transport minister's office, ticks off on that; they should have a go. That's the industry. That's the world telling you which way to go. A response four years late, no action, not looking here, talking about things like social licence—we need to get the community to move with us.

I have no idea which way the government's going on road safety. It's a crying shame. We are not going to get better. If we do not travel internationally, which is quite on the cards—a lot of Australians will no longer be travelling internationally for 18 months to two years—guess what? They'll finish work on a Friday night and drive to Melbourne for the footy. They'll watch the footy all day and do whatever they do on Saturday night. Then they'll try and head leadfooted back to Adelaide or wherever for work on Monday. And guess what? They're going to make mistakes, and the road toll is going to get higher, not lower.

When I drove over here to Canberra, the highway from Renmark back to Adelaide after a long weekend was bumper to bumper. Caravans, boats, motorcycles, cars with canoes on top—everybody was on the road. More people on the road, less skill on the road—it's going to need a concerted effort by the federal government and all the respective authorities to ensure people are going to get there safely.

There's huge investment in roads. But, with all of that investment, there's not one cent of it tied to safe outcomes. Have you got appropriate separation? Are you doing audio-tactile line marking? These issues are well known. The bureaucrats can talk to you endlessly about them. But we keep handing out large parcels of money without a tied safety outcome. It really has to stop.

I know other senators have to speak on other matters, so I just want to say this in finishing. We can't avoid this. This is Australians. COVID-19 has shown us how to act cooperatively. The national cabinet that now exists and has delivered an outcome of fewer than 100 Australians' deaths should have a look at road safety in the same way. Why don't you have it as an agenda item? There are a lot more than 100 Australians getting killed on the road, and there's a huge amount of people getting injured every day.

(Quorum formed)

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