Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Road safety is a national priority for the Australian government, and it's committed to reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by road crashes. The Black Spot Program is part of that intention. It's estimated that over 10 years these 2,374 projects will have saved 280 lives and prevented 14,400 crashes. The Black Spot Program provides funding for safety works, including roundabouts, crash barriers and street lights at places where there have been serious crashes or where serious crashes are likely. Of the $1.7 billion federal contribution, a total of $19,720,471 has been put towards projects in my electorate. That's a lot of money. In Monash, so far 55 of the proposed 68 projects have been completed, with the remaining 13 to be completed in the near future.

In the 2019-20 budget the Australian government has committed to an additional $50 million per year to the Black Spot Program from 2019-20. This additional funding is part of a $2.2 billion Local and State Government Road Safety Package. The government will provide $1 billion to the Black Spot Program from 2013-14 to 2022-23. A total of 275 projects across Australia have been approved for the 2019-20 program year, bringing the total number of projects approved since 2013-14 to 2,374. I am concerned about where this money is being spent. I've just been made chair of Victoria's Black Spot Program committee and I've learned a whole lot more about the program than I knew before. Thank you to the Deputy Prime Minister for the appointment, which carries no benefit but probably a lot of hard work!

My concern is this: having been a product of local government, having known local government and having been in local government reform, we design councils so that they would be more viable around Victoria. The city based councils, which I think we should go a lot further with than we did, are basically wealthy entities. They are very well funded, whether they be Casey or whether they be—

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