Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—

Introduction

The Australian Government has committed to report annually on the progress of the National Road Safety Strategy, and today I will outline the government's commitment to tackling road safety and our progress.

Last year alone some 1,291 people died on our nation's roads and over 30,000 were hospitalised—all because of road crashes. Since record keeping commenced in 1925, over 180,000 Australians have died on our roads. In dollar terms, the cost of road crashes to the Australian economy is estimated at $27 billion a year. It is a burden that is disproportionately carried by trauma victims and by their families. But the effects are also felt in our hospitals and by our medical and emergency services. The costs in lost productivity are felt by the whole community.

The Australian government believes that there is much we can—and must—do as a nation to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on Australia's roads. And pursuing this change is a shared responsibility—we can only make significant inroads if we all work together—all levels of government working in partnership with the community.

National Road Safety Strategy

In May last year, federal, state and territory transport ministers approved the National Road Safety Strategy 2011 to 2020. The Australian government led the establishment of the strategy following an extensive process of consultation with road safety agencies, professional organisations, industry groups and the broader Australian community. The strategy is an ambitious one, setting out an agenda for sustained road safety improvement, and guided by the vision that no person should be killed or seriously injured on Australia's roads. It is a strategy that moves away from the outdated mindset of blaming the driver, recognising that solutions to reducing road trauma need to adopt a wider and much more integrated approach.

It is clear that such a complex problem cannot be solved by narrowly targeted or easily derived measures. In light of that, the strategy provides a 10-year plan to move us towards our long-term vision of a road transport system that is inherently safe, built around four fundamental pillars—safe roads; safe speeds; safe vehicles; and safe people.

The strategy aims to reduce the annual numbers of both deaths and serious injuries on our roads by at least 30 per cent by 2020. Research evidence and traffic growth projections suggest it will be challenging—but with a concerted effort it is achievable. The strategy identifies 59 specific action items for priority attention, and a formal review of the strategy will be undertaken in 2014, and I expect it will reveal significant progress.

Progress report

A few weeks ago, the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure received the first status report on the strategy—almost exactly a year after its introduction. Even at this early stage, the report shows that a considerable amount of activity is in progress. Action is well underway to develop and implement improved safety standards for new vehicles. The Australian government has also led the way to promote best-practice fleet purchasing policies by adopting a five-star vehicle safety requirement for the Commonwealth fleet in 2011.

I am also pleased to note that all states and territories have taken steps to strengthen their drink driving and speed enforcement programs. In most jurisdictions, this includes the introduction of, or plans to introduce, point-to-point speed camera systems in a concerted effort to improve safety on major traffic routes.

Projects scheduled for completion over the next two years are addressing issues such as:

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) is currently developing a new national road crash database to enable full reporting against a range of key statistical indicators. While this is a work in progress, preliminary data produced for the first status report show that total road deaths in 2011 declined by 9.5 per cent relative to the strategy baseline. Indeed across a number of key indicators we are seeing improvements, including a 21 per cent reduction in deaths among 17- to 25-year-old drivers and motorcycle riders, and a 13 per cent reduction in both motorcyclist deaths and deaths from single-vehicle crashes.

Commonwealth contribution to road safety

I emphasised earlier that road safety is a shared responsibility. And in the spirit of shared responsibility I would like to outline the Australian government's major contributions to date.

Safe roads

It will come as no surprise to you that the strategy highlights the role of quality roads in ensuring safety. For this reason our $36 billion Nation Building Program is investing significant funding to upgrade and build new, safer roads around the nation. The government has already made unprecedented investments in upgrading highways, rail links and urban transport corridors, and through the latest budget, we will continue to do so.

Take for example the Black Spot Program. The Australian government's budget provides an additional $300 million to continue the program for a further five years until 2019. It is a significant investment—equating to a considerable $60 million per year to improve some of our nation's most dangerous patches of road.

And it is a program that is working. The bureau recently estimated that through the first seven years of projects funded by the Black Spot Program, around 4,000 crashes and almost 30 deaths have been avoided per year. We can expect that the Australian government's latest investment will prevent a further 2,000 crashes and save 13 lives a year.

The budget also announced additional funding to continue the Roads to Recovery Program from 2014-15 to 2018-19. A total of $1.75 billion in new funding will provide $350 million per annum directly to local councils, or states and territories in locations where there are no councils. This ensures those who know the local roads best have direct involvement in funding their improvement.

Safe vehicles

In the area of safer vehicles, the Australian government's role in vehicle safety regulation includes the ongoing pursuit of higher crash protection standards and the adoption of new and effective safety technology in vehicles. In driving forward the ambitious goals of the strategy in this area, the Australian government has made it a requirement starting July 2013 that all new passenger vehicles, passenger vans and sports utility vehicles are fitted with driver's seatbelt reminder systems.

Other work has seen the introduction of a new vehicle safety standard for ISOFIX child restraint anchorages, which will lead to greater choices for parents looking to ensure the safety of their children.

We will continue to work hard over the next two years, as we evaluate the case for mandating a range of other measures, such as:

Australia is also leading a United Nations working group to develop an international vehicle regulation on pole side impact. As side impacts account for over 20 per cent of Australian road deaths, and also a high proportion of serious brain injuries, this is a very important initiative. We are aiming for the UN agreement for the regulation next year and will then be in a position to implement the new standard here in Australia. I particularly acknowledge the international leadership and pioneering research of the department in this initiative and the support that we are getting from the Australian industry. ANCAP

While improving the safety of vehicles through changes to national standards, the Australian government has also turned its efforts to complementary safety measures, becoming a member of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program—ANCAP for short.

As I touched upon earlier, the government is showing its support for this important safety rating system by stipulating on 1 July last year that all new passenger vehicles purchased through the government's fleet purchasing system musthave a five-star ANCAP rating. I am particularly pleased that we have now increased the government's fleet of five-star passenger vehicles from 76 to 82 per cent over the last 12 months—all while maintaining our longstanding commitment to Australian vehicles. We will continue our commitment as we strive towards reaching the target of 100 per cent.

Also pleasing is the leadership that this has provided for other governments in Australia—and private fleet operators as well—to take up the challenge. Last month the Gillard government congratulated BHP Billiton on its announcement to require vehicles in its worldwide fleet to have the maximum five-star safety rating under New Car Assessment Programs operating around the globe. And we continue to urge others to follow.

Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program

I want to turn to an area of road safety that has been a particular concern to this government, namely the safety performance of heavy vehicles. The heavy vehicle transport sector plays a vital role in our economy and employs hundreds of thousands of Australians. However, heavy vehicle crashes also contribute substantially to road trauma, often involving the occupants of light passenger vehicles and pedestrians. We currently are, and will continue to be, dependent on heavy vehicles—they will not be disappearing from our roads anytime soon. But we can improve the safety of truck drivers, and by extension the rest of those on the road, by expanding the provision of suitable roadside rest areas.

In this year's budget, the government announced a $140 million extension to the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program through to 2019. This program directly targets heavy vehicle safety by providing funding for new and upgraded rest areas, parking and decoupling bays and other road enhancement projects. Impressively, in its first four years this program has delivered 236 projects—and we are building on this by doubling the amount of funding dedicated to this program.

This latest investment is on top of our recent establishment of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal—a huge step forward in stemming risky behaviour by heavy vehicle drivers—as well as working to establish the first ever single National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

Seatbelts on Regional School Buses

Another aim of the National Strategy is to improve the safety of children travelling in school buses on high-speed or potentially hazardous roads. The government's recent decision to extend the Seatbelts on Regional School Buses program for a further four years is an important contribution to that objective. Since its introduction in 2007, the Seatbelts on Regional School Buses program has invested some $4.8 million in seatbelts on more than 300 buses throughout Australia. The government's additional $4 million commitment will ensure that many more seatbelt-equipped school buses are available for students in rural and regional parts of Australia.

Young people

Last year, 133 young people aged between 17 and 25 years were killed while driving a vehicle. Tragically, a further 77 died as passengers. While we are making improvements in most areas of road safety, this young adult age group continues to be significantly over-represented in serious road crashes. That is why the Australian government is helping to improve young driver safety by funding the national keys2drive learner driver program. This groundbreaking initiative developed by the Australian Automobile Association provides learner drivers—and their supervising parents—with free lessons from an accredited driving instructor. With over 1,000 accredited driving instructors across the nation, this program has now delivered almost 100,000 free lessons to young learner drivers—and the program is continuing to expand.

One of the ways we seek to improve young driver safety in Australia is through graduated licensing systems for learner and p-plate drivers. I am pleased that transport ministers have agreed for work to be done on this issue and to consider options for a better national approach to graduated licensing at the next meeting of the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure.

Another matter of great concern to me, and that I have also raised with my state and territory colleagues, is the number of children killed or seriously injured in driveway-related incidents. These typically involve very young children being run over while they are playing—often in the family home—and often with a family member or friend behind the wheel. And these young children do not appear on our national road trauma statistics. I am determined to see some action nationally to prevent these tragic incidents, which impact terribly on families and communities. My department is undertaking work on options to address this problem and I will be taking the matter up at the next meeting of transport ministers later in the year.

Global decade of action for road safety

In addition the National Road Safety Strategy, the Australian government is a strong supporter to the global Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020. And we continue to contribute internationally to reduce the level of road trauma as part of the decade.

Conclusion

Australia has a commendable record of road safety achievement stretching back over four decades. In 1970, our worst year, 3,800 Australians lost their lives in a single year of road carnage. Since then we have seen combined efforts from all levels of governments and the community to get these figures down. We were the first country to introduce compulsory wearing of seatbelts and bicycle helmets. We were at the forefront of random breath testing, roadside drug testing laws and child restraint requirements.

We led the way in performance-based vehicle safety standards, black spot road improvement programs and fatigue management reforms in the heavy vehicle transport sector. But there is clearly a lot more that all of us need to do. We have made a good start under the new National Road Safety Strategy, and the government is determined to maintain the momentum.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Gippsland to speak for 15 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Gippsland speaking in reply to the minister's statement for a period not exceeding 15 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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