Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I speak to this motion today and recognise the role of Peter Brock in Australia. It was a terrible week for all Australians to have two significant Australians pass away in a very short period of time, with the passing of both Peter Brock and Steve Irwin.

Today, in speaking to this motion, I particularly want to recognise Peter Brock’s contribution to Australian road safety. In December 2004, I had the privilege of participating in a national forum on young driver safety held at Parliament House—right here in this building—at which there were many fine presentations from road safety academics and driver training specialists. Peter Brock’s presentation on that day was most impressive. He spoke passionately about improving road safety for young Australians. In his unofficial role as a road safety ambassador, Peter was, above all else, a gifted communicator. He spoke with the authority gained from the vast experience in his profession, but he also spoke from the heart.

For more than three decades Peter lent his support to countless road safety and driver training initiatives. As a motor sports hero to thousands of young Australians, he was uniquely placed to get the road safety message out to those who needed most to hear it. In the mid-1970s Peter collaborated with the Victorian road safety authority on the 0.05 BAC campaign, which he famously promoted by adopting 05 as his racing car number. This was a powerful public endorsement of road safety values at a time when social attitudes towards drink-driving in particular were far more permissive and uninformed than they are today. Peter continued to communicate the drink-driving message to young people throughout his career, most recently through his involvement with RADD—the Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes against Drink-Driving Association.

Peter Brock had a long association with driver training and education. Since 1992, his association with the Jim Murcott/Peter Brock Advanced Driving Centre helped deliver a range of driving training courses designed for fleet drivers. In 2002 he worked with the driving instructors from TAFE Tasmania’s Arrive Alive Program when he visited that state to conduct an advanced training session. In 2005 he launched a program developed by Murcotts Driving Excellence for rural drivers, particularly targeting young people in farming communities. Through Team Brock Driving Life, the driver education arm of Peter’s motor racing organisation, he helped to deliver driver programs to both corporate bodies and the general public. Earlier this year Peter provided the foreword for a new book designed specifically to assist parents of teenagers who are on the threshold of their driving careers.

Peter’s road safety activities were not limited to addressing the needs of motorists. He recently took part in a road safety forum organised by the Amy Gillett Foundation which focused on ways in which bicycle riders and motorists can share the roads more safely. He was also active in developing community walking and cycling paths in his home town of Hurstbridge in Victoria.

Peter Brock became an Australian icon through his involvement in motor sports. He was lovingly referred to as Peter Perfect, revered for his mastery of the racetrack and his supreme vehicle control skills. He was a nine-time winner of the famous Bathurst 1000. I was pleased to see Peter’s close friend and racing colleague Craig Lowndes become the first winner of the inaugural Peter Brock Trophy for winning the event recently.

As a road safety advocate and educator, Peter Brock’s message was about self-control, moderation and learning to share the roads with other people. Earlier I mentioned the national forum on young drivers held in Parliament House in December 2004. A focal point of that event was the vulnerability of novice drivers in the year or so after they graduate to a provisional licence—that danger period when they are learning to make their own driving decisions without a supervisor looking over their shoulder. In the face of all the evidence, the Australian government was convinced of the need for a new driver education initiative in Australia—a post-licence education scheme directly addressing the heightened crash risk in the early stages of solo driving.

The Australian government joined with the New South Wales and Victorian governments, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the Insurance Australia Group and the RACV to develop and trial an innovative program. Progress on this project has been slower than we would have hoped. Frankly, it has proved to be a more complex and challenging task than I think any of us envisaged. But we are committed to developing a program with genuine safety benefits for all young Australian motorists. I know that Peter Brock, speaking at that forum, was very supportive of this program.

A lot of work has gone into designing a curriculum for the course, drawing on a combination of international experience, research and best practice learning methods. A tender process was recently initiated to select the right specialist to fully develop and test the course curriculum. The main aim of the program will be to help young drivers gain a better understanding of the risks they face on the road and to encourage safer driving strategies whilst they are still maturing as motorists.

Plans are progressing for the commencement of the trial in New South Wales and Victoria next year. It will be delivered to novices aged 17 to 21 in New South Wales and 18 to 22 in Victoria after they obtain their first provisional car licence. The trial will run for several months, with 12 months of post-course crash data feeding into a comprehensive follow-up evaluation. It is expected to involve some 14,000 course participants in New South Wales and Victoria—7,000 in each state—with a similar number of novices selected for a control group. This will constitute one of the largest and most rigorous studies ever undertaken in the area of post-licence driver education.

Driver education is only one element in a comprehensive approach to road safety improvements, and the Australian government is deeply committed to doing everything it can to reduce the level of trauma on the nation’s roads. I am particularly concerned that the number of road deaths has not improved since 2004, despite increased spending on the nation’s roads, advances in vehicle safety and a greater focus on driver education from many high-profile people around Australia, including Peter Brock. There are, however, some positive signs. Road deaths in the eight months to the end of August 2006 were down 2.4 per cent on the same period last year, with a seven per cent reduction in deaths among drivers. But a rapid improvement in progress will be required to meet the national strategy target of a 40 per cent reduction in road deaths by the end of 2010.

Ministers of the Australian Transport Council met last Friday in this building to consider a national road safety action plan for 2007 and 2008. One important initiative already agreed to by the council is to develop a plan to accelerate the uptake of electronic stability control in new vehicles sold in Australia. Already 20 per cent of the fleet in Australia have electronic stability control fitted, and I understand that by next year, 2007, some 40 per cent of the fleet will have electronic stability control in one form or another. My department is working on this plan, which will include working with vehicle manufacturers to encourage the fitting of ESC technology in all new vehicle models. The Australian government has significantly increased its investment in safer roads through its $15 billion commitment to land transport infrastructure over five years, from 2004-05 to 2008-09, representing a 90 per cent increase on the previous five years.

In conclusion, obviously road safety was something that was a passion for Peter Brock. It is a passion for many people in Australia, and we all have to work together to ensure that we continue to save lives on our roads. We need a combination of safer roads, better vehicles and better qualified drivers. I want to record my condolences to Peter’s family and his friends. His enthusiasm for life was infectious and the Australian public were clearly shocked and moved by his untimely death.

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