Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak to this motion. We all know we need to do more to make our roads safer. That's why the Black Spot Program has bipartisan support. This program was first introduced under the Hawke government, and for three decades now governments of all stripes have extended and invested in this important program to make our roads safer. But, sadly, this program alone has not been enough to drive down our national road toll. We are now in our seventh year of coalition government, and for seven years progress on road safety has stalled. Australia is now in the final year of the National Road Safety Strategy. This plan, launched by Labor when in government in 2011, was intended to guide Australia towards a future of safer roads, fewer injuries and, most importantly, fewer fatalities. Tragically, however, the road toll for 2019 was higher than it was five years ago. Last year, 1,194 Australians died on our roads. This is a national tragedy that is being felt by families in communities in all corners of the country.

Every death on Australia's roads is one death too many, yet the government is simply not providing the national leadership Australians deserve and demand when it comes to road safety. We know from analysis by the AAA that only nine of the 33 indicators from the National Road Safety Strategy will be met and that eight of the targets, including one of the headline targets—to reduce serious injuries by 30 per cent—still cannot be measured. The work to make sure we can measure that target has not been done.

I note that after the election last year the government established the Joint Select Committee on Road Safety. This committee was formed with the mandate to inquire and report on steps that could be taken to reduce Australia's road accident rates, trauma and deaths on our roads. This is an important task, and it should lead to real action. Instead, the committee did not even meet until Labor members lost patience, frankly, with the government's inaction and called a meeting themselves last parliamentary week. And, over the weekend, we saw revelations that the government is more concerned with using this committee to deliver political favours than it is to find a way to actually lower the road toll.

Earlier this month was the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Stockholm. Despite it being a ministerial conference, the Morrison government did not send the Deputy Prime Minister or the assistant minister for road safety. Instead, representing the parliament at this global conference was a first-term backbencher from the National Party, the member for Cowper. If you're asking why the member for Cowper attended this global ministerial conference then you're not on your own. The Weekend Australian gave us a hint of what might be the real reason for why the member for Cowper was sent on a trip to Stockholm: he voted against the member for New England's party room assault on the Deputy Prime Minister. In the lead-up to the recent Nationals leadership spill, the member for Cowper was considered to be a supporter of the former Leader of the National Party Barnaby Joyce, but on the eve of the vote he changed his mind. Why? It couldn't have something to do with the committee chairmanship or a tax funded Scandinavian trip I'm sure!

Road safety should be above political gains. But, despite the government's claim that the member for Cowper attended the Swedish conference representing the parliament of Australia, it would appear that no non-government MP who was invited was invited to attend as part of a parliamentary delegation. Global conferences should be an important opportunity for cooperation with policy formulation, not a prize to be handed out in return for party room votes. If the government truly took the issue of road safety seriously, there is no doubt that a minister would have attended this conference. In fact, you would have thought the minister for road safety would have been a good idea. That the government's two ministers skipped the conference, that the head of the Office of Road Safety was usurped on the program by a departmental deputy secretary, and that the parliament was represented by a first-term backbencher send a very, very powerful message as to what this government actually thinks of road safety.

It is good that the government points to the three decades of success of the Black Spot Program because there isn't a lot of good in other aspects of its road safety policies. Labor will always support the Black Spot Program and any other policy that drives down our nation's road tolls and saves Australian lives. This government has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the National Road Safety Strategy. There has been a distinct lack of national leadership on national road safety. We are seeing the road toll continue to rise, and that is not something the government should be proud of. We will continue to be ready to work with the government on any substantial policies that they come up with to improve road safety, and we certainly hope that they actually manage to do so.

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