Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

In supporting this motion I commend the member for Makin for bringing the House's attention to an issue of significant importance right across our nation. The motion before the House does cover a broad range of issues and I would like to particularly focus on regional areas. Before I do, I refer briefly to the member for Bennelong's contribution, which highlighted some very important points relating to the inconsistencies between different state jurisdictions. Those rules and regulations in place in different states are presumably based on expert advice, but the simple message tonight is that they cannot all be right. What is the best practice, and whatever that best practice is is what we should be implementing right across Australia. We have such conflicting sets of road rules and vehicle standards that it has got to the stage where you need to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out what is the most appropriate way to maintain a safe road environment. It is confusing and I certainly support a complete overhaul with a view to making our road laws much more consistent.

Naturally road issues are very close to the heart of regional MPs. I note the contribution by the member for McEwen. We tend to drive longer miles and we certainly rely on our cars to break down our isolation. Having a licence and being able to operate on a good and safe network of roads is critical for not only the economic well-being of regional communities but also the social life of our communities. There is no question that our road network is the artery of economic and social life in regional areas. It is important that our attempts to harmonise road laws and vehicle compliance standards be directed at ensuring clarity for road users themselves and providing certainty for the Australian motorist, as noted in the motion. We also need to focus very much on the need to improve the road safety outcome with everything we do in this regard, and so reduce Australia's road death and injury toll.

Inconsistencies particularly in relation to licensing arrangements for L-platers and P-platers have been well and truly highlighted. In Victoria, a full licence cannot be achieved until a driver is 18 years of age. Then we impose passenger restrictions on young people. That seems to be at complete odds with all our other messages, particularly relating to drink-driving, where we encourage people to have a designated driver. But, as a P-plater, in Victoria you are told you are not allowed to have more than one passenger. That seems to be at odds with all the other messages we are putting to the community in terms of being responsible in the consumption of alcohol. Some of the other states permit a full licence at 17 years of age, which to me would make more sense if you are going to impose those passenger restrictions on young people at a later age.

As I said, the focus of this discussion must be on how we make our roads safer for road users. Various reports have found that improving the actual safety of the road environment is critical to reducing the road toll. While enforcement and driver behaviour are key issues and are a focus of our police officers right throughout the nation, improving the actual safety of the roads environment is paramount. From a Victorian perspective, the road toll has been reduced in the entire state but the regional road toll has remained quite resistant to efforts by governments of both political persuasions to reduce it. The Nationals have been at the forefront of working with the government of the day, with programs such as Black Spots which are aimed very directly at improving the safety of known trouble spots. Also I give credit to the former Bracks and Brumby governments in Victoria for introducing a grey spots program to target areas which have not been a source of accidents but have the potential threat of accidents.

At a federal level, the Nationals and Liberals initiated the successful Roads to Recovery Program in March 2001, which I think was a great initiative. It has been continued by the current government, and it is important to make the point that there has been a bipartisan approach to the program and it has been very successful in focusing on road safety improvements on a local level, where local councils have the opportunity to access additional resources and use those resources to maintain local road networks. Our party is also very keen to see a bridges renewal program introduced right across Australia given the huge backlog of bridges in need of repairs. I understand there are about 30,000 bridges across our nation and our local councils are struggling desperately to try and maintain that network.

I commend the member for Makin for bringing this issue to the attention of the House. I am sure the people listening at home would appreciate, when they travel between different states, that these inconsistencies are a great source of frustration and I am sure they would be heartened to think that members here in this place are doing their best to try and develop a more consistent standard which will improve road safety for all road users.

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