Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about road safety. Road Safety is something that affects us all. Any death or serious injury from a road crash is one too many, and I know this only too well. My own grandfather died in a motor vehicle accident at a very young age while he was travelling from Newcastle to Sydney. It affects the whole family and cuts the life off of someone way too early. Every Australian plays an important role in keeping our roads safe by not driving under the influence of alcohol or illicit substances or speeding. But we can all do better to improve and keep our roads safe. In 2014 on the Central Coast a young boy named Tom McLaughlin, who was four at the time, died in a pedestrian accident. His parents, David and Michelle, set up Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation, a charity that sets out to improve road safety for children. They do an incredible job of that by conducting campaigns that go across the country via local government areas to educate parents and teachers and the whole community about road safety.

The Australian government is leading the way when it comes to road safety. The federal government has committed $500 million to targeted road safety upgrades to deliver small-scale road safety improvements that have a big effect on road safety right around the nation. Improvements such as new barriers, audio tactile road markings, better signage, better road surfaces and shoulder sealings are relatively low-cost but deliver significant improvements to the safety of the road. This is why the Australian government has built upon the $500 million targeted road safety with our $2 billion Road Safety program.

This new $2 billion Road Safety program is rolling out now. The $2 billion is split into three six-month periods running from 1 January this year until 30 June 2022. The funding is committed on a 'use it or lose it' basis. That means that if a state or territory cannot spend its allocation in each period, it will be reallocated to a jurisdiction that can spend it. The Road Safety program together with the government's very popular Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program is expected to support more than 10,000 jobs at a time when we need them most. The new program is supporting low-cost road improvements and in urban areas supporting the separation of cyclists and other vulnerable road users from the traffic. This shows the benefit of infrastructure delivery—supporting our economy with jobs and investment but leaving a lasting legacy that will serve Australians into the future.

To ensure the Australian government's infrastructure investment in road safety is supported by data, we have also committed $5.5 million over four years to establish a national road safety data hub. The states and territories are required to report key data to the federal government as a key condition of the Road Safety program, which will feed into the hub's design and cooperation.

The federal government also supports using innovative solutions to improve road safety. Innovation will take the form of road safety management initiatives, new technologies and products, delivery techniques and research that better informs policy development. These initiatives will support the safe system approach into making road safety business as usual for all road users. Long-term, the Road Safety Innovation Fund aims to reduce harm and trauma in crashes on Australian roads through supporting a shift in the way we address road safety challenges. The intention of the program is to contribute to a safe and sustainable road transport system towards Vision Zero: zero fatal and serious injuries on our roads by 2050. The Road Safety Awareness and Enablers Fund provides $4 million over four years, from 2019 to 2020, for grants to fund road safety awareness education and collaboration initiatives. Twenty projects have been funded aimed at reducing road trauma in Australia. They include rural and regional road safety; promoting and raising awareness on the impacts of speeding; driveway safety; sharing the road; and combatting fatigue through the expansion of the Driver Reviver program. Although more work needs to be done, between 1980 and 2019 Australia's annual road fatality rate reduced from 22.3 to 4.3 deaths over 100,000 people. We have come a long way in our quest towards zero, but we have much further to go.

See this speech in context