Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon as the shadow minister for transport, roads and tourism to speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Ryan. I note that, while there is a long-term trend in reducing the loss of lives on Australian roads, we are still a long way from achieving our 2010 target of 40 per cent below the 1999 benchmark. Most concerning is the fact that since the end of 2004 a substantial gap has opened between actual and required outcomes. In fact, in the 2006 reporting year road deaths were 2.5 per cent higher than in the previous year even though they were down almost 15 per cent compared with 1999. Sadly, in Tasmania we have achieved no gains since 1999.

On an international basis, Australia ranks 11th out of 26 nations in terms of road deaths per 100,000 population. I think we would all agree that, while we perform better than the OECD median, this is not good enough. National improvements in the number of road fatalities since 1999 have been concentrated in three areas: vehicle occupants in multi-vehicle crashes, pedestrians and cyclists. Since 2002 there has been a marked decrease in the number of road deaths involving articulated trucks. Despite the fact that the number of kilometres travelled by articulated trucks increased by 13 per cent between 2000 and 2005, the number of fatalities and fatal crashes involving articulated trucks actually decreased by 19 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

These are very important achievements because, in coping with Australia’s rapidly growing freight task, heavy vehicle travel will be the major component of total growth in vehicle travel over the next decade. Consequently, we must continue to focus on ways to reduce heavy vehicle related road trauma, including reducing heavy vehicle aggressivity, exposure and crash risk, and improving light vehicle crashworthiness.

As the member for Ryan noted in his motion, the AusLink Black Spot Program is a very important Australian government initiative aimed at reducing road trauma—and it has the federal Labor Party’s support. In government, the Labor Party would retain the Black Spot Program. I welcome its continuation with increased funding until 2014, the end of the AusLink 2 period.

I note that the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics is currently evaluating the success of the program to date. I look forward to seeing that report in the near future because it is essential that the program be targeted to achieve the best possible national road safety outcomes. I say that because the Black Spot Program is too important to be abused in the same way that we have seen the Howard government’s abuse of the AusLink Strategic Regional Program in the lead-up to the last election and over the last few weeks.

Ignoring departmental guidelines and eligibility criteria, the Minister for Transport and Regional Services has over the last two weeks doled out $250 million, based on electoral map considerations of where road funding should go rather than on proper transport criteria, including road safety issues. Since the budget, the minister has showered largesse on safe and marginal coalition seats, spending $205 million or more than 80 per cent of the total fund on 72 projects in just 30 coalition seats. By contrast, 10 projects in six Labor electorates received only $27 million or about five per cent of the total fund. I am hopeful, given the seriousness of its objectives, that we can keep the Black Spot Program away from political considerations and guarantee it ongoing transparency and honesty in decision making.

Based on the previous BTRE evaluation in 2001 of the first three years of the program, it is estimated that from 1996 to 1999 the program generated $1.3 billion NPV and a benefit-cost ratio of 14. The evaluation showed that greater benefits accrued in urban areas and that certain engineering treatments were more successful than others. Roundabouts were highly successful in improving safety in both capital cities and regional areas. It also showed that the use of traffic lights, medians, non-skid surfaces and traffic islands on approaches were successful. In regional areas, signs and new traffic lights had the most success. By contrast, despite its popularity as a treatment, there was no evidence that sealing road shoulders in cities had any significant impact on road safety.

Hopefully, the lessons learned from the BTRE evaluation have been applied over the last few years to deliver even better results from the Black Spot Program. I commend the motion to the House.

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