Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wide Bay for bringing this motion forward. The National Highway in Queensland, better known to Queenslanders as 'the Bruce', is often in the news for all the wrong reasons. It's not uncommon to hear of the road being cut due to flooding or even a landslip during the Queensland summer, or after a weather event. Lately there have been way too many headlines regarding devastating road accidents on the Bruce. These accidents are tragic, and I send my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the people who lost their lives or were seriously harmed in these recent accidents. I give a special shout-out to the police—like the member for Wide Bay, in his former profession—the ambos, the firies and other workers who respond to such carnage.

The Labor government stands behind our Vision Zero program—that is, zero deaths and zero injuries due to road accidents by 2050. The Office of Road Safety coordinates federal, state/territory and local government efforts that work towards this goal. To quote the Vision Zero principle:

This means creating a system where the system designers and operators, including engineers, planners, lawmakers, enforcement agencies, post trauma crash care workers and others—share responsibility with road users for designing a road system that does not allow human error to have a serious or fatal outcome.

There is no doubt this would be beneficial to the hundreds of thousands of drivers on the Bruce Highway.

My wife is from Cairns. I used to teach up near Cairns. I used to be a union organiser who covered the area from Rockhampton up to Moranbah. So I've driven the Bruce way too many times, and I know that the Bruce Highway will benefit from the Albanese government's investment of over $10 billion directed towards safety improvements, including the $1.35 billion Bruce Highway Safety Package. That includes widening high-priority sections of pavement for wide centre line treatment, installing barriers at high-priority locations, installing safety barriers at high-risk sites and implementing improvements to signage and lines. Reflecting the heavy usage of the road, there are also plans to increase the capacity of this important corridor. I note that the Gympie Bypass is about to open, I think, next week or the week after. I look forward to that, as someone who's got a sister who lives in Gympie. The substantial investment in Bruce Highway improvements was continued in the last budget. An extra $467 million was directed to the highway, including an additional $154 million for improvements along the Bruce Highway North Corridor.

As Queenslanders, members of the most decentralised state, we know that there's a focus on the safety of the Bruce Highway. As a result, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has written to her Queensland counterpart to request that the state government expedite these proposals to accelerate these crucial safety works.

The Albanese Labor government has a proven record of commitment to road safety and, within that, a focus on improving the safety of regional roads. We've doubled the Roads to Recovery funding, from $500 million to $1 billion annually. The resulting projects, which support the construction and maintenance of local road infrastructure assets, are delivered by local governments, obviously sometimes by their employees.

Funding for the Black Spot Program is also progressively increasing from $110 million to $150 million per year. This program directly targets dangerous and risky locations where crashes are occurring. It funds improvements, such as traffic signals or roundabouts, to help reduce the risks of crashes. This is driven by data, not by colour coded spreadsheets. That's important, because the LNP don't know. Obviously, they're yepping from Yeppoon and are addicted to pork. So it's good to get the data driving what's going on.

There's more funding for the Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program. That will increase to $200 million annually. We've introduced the National Road Safety Action Grants Program. We've also committed $16.5 million to the car safety ratings program over the next five years. This enables independent vehicles and safety assessments for both new and used vehicles, giving the customers important data.

Despite all these proactive measures, those opposite don't think that a $10 billion federal investment in the Bruce is sufficient. They're focused on the 80-20 split with the Queensland government. This is despite the conclusion drawn by the independent review of the Infrastructure Investment Program that recommended a fifty-fifty split. Our commitment is to shared accountability and investment maximisation. The government's investment of more than $10 billion in the Bruce is only worth $12 billion on an 80-20 split. However, if we do the fifty-fifty, we end up having about $20 billion to invest in the safety of Queenslanders and all Australians, and that's a good thing for the Bruce and for the nation.

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