Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to begin by acknowledging the work of Glenda Staniford, president of the BUS Action Group, and Jan Shaloub, who are in the gallery here tonight—thank you for being here, ladies. The BUS Action Group was formed in March 2001 in my electorate of Gilmore following the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy in a bus accident near Sussex Inlet on the South Coast of New South Wales.

I stand in this House today experiencing a sense of deja vu which takes me back to August 2001 when my former colleague and friend Kay Elson, the then member for Forde, put up a private member’s business issue to this chamber calling for seatbelts to be fitted to all new school buses. She said: ‘If we do not, we will be having this same debate in five, 10 or 20 years. I just hate to think of whose sons, daughters and grandchildren will have to pay the ultimate price in the meantime.’ Regrettably, we are facing the same debate, and since then more than 24 families have paid the ultimate price and have lost loved ones in fatal bus accidents, including three school bus victims. Many hundreds more families are paying a lesser price, but are still suffering from the long-term effects of trauma and injuries sustained by the survivors of over 75 serious accidents involving 38 school buses.

In the past the federal government left it to the states and territories to determine where route buses without seatbelts can be used. The New South Wales government took the National Risk Guidelines for School Bus Routes for endorsement to the Australian Transport Council meeting on 18 November 2005, supposedly to achieve uniform national standards for bus safety. In an act of gross hypocrisy by federal, state and territory ministers, these guidelines were made voluntary, and even if states and territories use them there is no required action, such as installing seatbelts, even on the most hazardous bus routes. This farce was just a stalling tactic, as in some states there have been no safety improvements. New South Wales, which took the proposal to the Australian Transport Council, have done nothing in four years since the guidelines were endorsed, and have not even released their classification of high-risk school bus routes, which were determined in January 2008.

Following vigorous lobbying of both federal and state governments, the Howard government provided a funding subsidy of $40 million in 2007 under the Seatbelts for Kids program, to assist coach companies to fund the installation of seatbelts in school buses. We all felt relieved that this problem was going to be addressed. However, less than $2 million has been spent ever since the funding was made available. Only 79 school buses across Australia have been specially fitted with seatbelts.

A few weeks ago in Perth 23 pupils were injured in an urban bus crash. The next day more pupils were reported injured in a school bus crash near Ipswich in Queensland. On 11 May two school buses collided in the Blue Mountains, in a 40 kilometre an hour zone. Even at that speed 40 pupils were injured. These are just some of the accidents reported. The incidence of school bus crashes has been amply demonstrated and accepted by governments at every level, yet governments are dragging their feet. It was hoped that a voluntary program supported by funding would be an adequate incentive to hasten fittings, but this is proving not to be the case.

The Royal Australian College of Surgeons trauma committee, in response to the Australian Transport Council’s discussion document on bus safety said:

Although we agree with the research that a serious casualty crash has a low probability of occurring, the probabilities should one occur of serious injury and mortality are extremely high. We would therefore predict a devastating bus crash as one of the most likely mass casualty events that could occur in Australia.

Evidence of the value of seatbelts reducing the incidence of injury has been amply demonstrated since Australia introduced the compulsory wearing of seatbelts in 1972. Can the minister explain why federally he enforces strict safety standards for coaches, as in Australian Design Rule 68/00, but allows state and territory governments to use any bus on any road without the same Australian Design Rule 68/00 safety standards? Is Minister Albanese aware that many buses used for country school bus runs and charter hire are still of the same fatally flawed design as those involved in the Kempsey and Grafton bus disasters in 1989 in which 55 people were killed? DOTARS claim that an Australian Design Rule cannot define where a bus can operate—that it is a state and territory government responsibility. Yet ADR 68/00 presently has an exemption for route service buses, therefore the exemption can be amended to mandate ADR 68/00 safety requirements for non-urban bus travel. This was the original intention, as per the regulation impact statement for ADR 68/00, ‘Occupant protection in buses’, which says:

The proposed regulation is to provide improved occupant protection in buses and coaches other than city route buses by the fitting of three point seat belts to all passenger seats.

This states the intention, but a poorly worded exemption has allowed state and territory governments to continue using unsafe buses with seats lower than one metre in height to be defined as ‘urban route service buses’ which are therefore allowed to operate anywhere, even on highly dangerous non-urban roads.

I call on Minister Albanese to change the exemption so that the route service buses cannot operate outside urban and city areas without ADR 68/00 safety compliance. The transport minister can do more but refuses to, even though parents continue to lobby for his intervention to legislate changes to existing Australian Design Rule 68/00, which currently provides seatbelt safety legislation for coaches. ADR 68/00 coach compliance in 1995 has resulted in a fantastic safety record: no seatbelted coach passenger has died since. Hundreds of rural school buses travel on the same roads and highways as coaches, so why hasn’t the minister done anything about rectifying this anomaly where coach passengers have seatbelt protection but bus passengers do not? This is not just about school buses; any ordinary bus can travel on high-speed Australian roads carrying passengers without seatbelt protection simply because the bus has low back seats—that is, less than one metre in height. This unsafe bus travel has caused many deaths and serious injuries to bus passengers in just the past eight years. The minister is aware of this and has done nothing to rectify these unsafe practices.

A 1995 Federal Office of Road Safety report, Analysis of improving occupant protection in existing buses, conducted an analysis of bus crashes between 1987 and 1994, with estimates of injury reduction. They examined 18 non-urban bus accidents and overwhelmingly determined that fatalities, serious and minor injuries would have been reduced by almost half: 45 deaths instead of 95.

Buses manufactured for urban use are being used for non-urban bus travel. This is highly dangerous and it is unacceptable that the minister can allow this unsafe practice to continue. As the percentage of non-urban school bus travel is approximately 15 per cent of total school bus travel, a three- to five-year compliance deadline is easily achievable and must be set with federal, state and territory government assistance. The cost to fix seatbelts has been exaggerated in government reports by including metropolitan urban buses. Upgrading non-urban rural buses to Australian Design Rule 68/00 safety standards is cost effective.

I call on the minister to amend Australian Design Rule 68/00 so that the only exemption is for route service buses operating on urban roads, by removing the current exemption for any bus with a seat height of less than one metre and by amending it to read, ‘All buses operating on non-urban roads and highways must meet the requirements in this rule, ensuring that lap-sash seatbelt protection and all safety features within Design Rule 68/00 presently afforded to coach passengers apply to any bus travelling on any high-speed road, highway or dirt road’; and by calling on the state and territory governments to support mandating bus seatbelts.

Further, I call on the government to legislate the amendments to ADR 68/00 by January 2011 and to ensure compliance with the amendments by school buses and all affected routes by 2020, beginning with all new and replacement buses. This gives ample lead time. I also ask that the federal transport minister place lap-sash seatbelts for non-urban bus travel on the agenda at each and every Australian Transport Council meeting until there is certification that all buses used on non-urban roads meet the safety standards within Australian Design Rule 68/00.

It is clear from the snail’s pace of uptake that a voluntary code on this issue is not going to work; therefore, the only practical and responsible course of action is to mandate the installation of seatbelts on school buses, coupled with the withdrawal of funding assistance, by January 2020. I again thank the BUS Action Group for taking the time to travel all the way from Ulladulla to be here in the House tonight. Thank you, ladies.

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