Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to make a few brief comments on these two particular reports: National road safety—Eyes on the road ahead and Train illumination: inquiry into some measures proposed to improve train visibility and reduce level crossing accidents. Firstly, I want to deal with Train illumination. This report was presented to the House in June 2004. The government’s response was tabled in the House in December the following year. I will not go into all the detail, but I want to briefly say that the committee reported with only five recommendations but they were good ones. The government supported one recommendation in full, one recommendation in part and one recommendation in principle and did not support two of the recommendations.

The report focuses on a very narrow aspect—as you would expect with only five recommendations—of community safety at level crossings. It is very specific and something that I am sure is a concern to all members. I am pleased the government supported at least some recommendations, particularly the adoption of a scoring system which is similar to that which is in place in Queensland. This will provide uniformity across the country. I am also pleased that the government will undertake further studies to ensure maximum safety for the public at level crossings to make sure that is achieved.

I want to highlight, for the benefit of the House, members and the public, that fatalities at level crossings are a serious matter. While they have decreased over recent years, which indicates that there has been an improvement in safety standards and illumination and a whole range of other issues about visibility, there are still too many people who die at our rail crossings each year and there is always more that we can do. I do not think any of us lives in a perfect world, a perfect system, where we expect there to be no fatalities, but I strongly believe that governments should continue to work harder together—particularly in areas where the federal and state governments can work together to bring about uniform signage and uniform policies and procedures across what are national issues. I just wanted to make those comments in relation to the Train illumination report.

I want to also make some brief comments on the national road safety report called Eyes on the road ahead. This report was also presented to the House in June 2004, and the government’s response was tabled in the House in December the following year. The committee reported with 38 recommendations. The government supported only three of those in full. It supported 13 recommendations in principle and noted one, but it did not support 21 of those recommendations. Obviously there is an extensive number of recommendations because of the scope of the work of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services and the importance of national road safety. Just as important as safety at rail crossings is national road safety.

This is a national issue and one where the federal government could do more work on better partnering with the states, not saying, as is the case in the government’s response that was tabled in December 2005, that many of these issues were out of the scope of the federal government. In fact, the principal reason the government did not support the recommendations of the committee is that the federal government believed that many of the recommendations were overreaching the federal government’s responsibilities. That may be the case, but where that is the case there is scope for the government and the minister to pay particular attention to working with the state authorities and using good recommendations, not just rejecting them out of hand.

Such safety recommendations may be out of the scope of the federal government, but it should work with the states in trying to put them in place. It seems obvious to me, as I am sure it would to ordinary people out on the street, that if you have a good recommendation, a good policy—something that could be done to save lives—you will do everything you can to enact it, if you have the power to do so. To simply say, ‘Well, it’s not my responsibility; I’ll just let somebody else worry about it,’ I do not think is a good enough response.

I also want to mention that I think, while some were very good, some of the committee’s recommendations were not so very good. Committees, in themselves, are not infallible. They do make recommendations that I do not always agree with. I want to note one in particular. The committee recommended some absurd special licensing category for four-wheel drive owners. While this debate rears its ugly head from time to time, I think it is just as silly as anything could possibly be. The government rejected it—and I am glad that it did. I am sure that this debate will pop up again and I will not go into the detail of why I believe this is a silly approach to licensing or safety. If we really want to look at road safety, before moving on to any sort of licensing there are many things that the federal and state governments could do simply about the condition of our roads, to start with. Very rarely with somebody’s death is it a case of just a licence issue. It is usually a combination of two, three or four things, not the least being poor road conditions. Often it is people speeding or being under the influence of some drug. Just with those few comments, I note both of those reports.

Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take this opportunity to comment on what I believe is a very important report, National road safety—Eyes on the road ahead, and the government’s response to it. First, I thank the chairman, Paul Neville, and all the members of the committee for the work they put into this important report. The government does take it seriously; it certainly has supported a number of the recommendations. As the previous speaker said, many of the 21 recommendations that were not supported do not come under the jurisdiction of the Australian government, and we must continue to work very closely with the state and territory governments on this very complex issue. Road safety is important to all of us in Australia. Every single Australian would love to see the death toll and accident trauma on our roads reduced, and we are making significant progress in that area.

In 1995, there were 2,017 deaths on Australian roads and the population fatality rate stood at 11.2 deaths per 100,000 people. In the following 10 years, we saw a substantial improvement in national road safety. Statistically, the annual fatality numbers have decreased by 19 per cent and the rate per population has dropped by 28 per cent. The Australian government has contributed to this achievement through its ongoing work on improved vehicle safety standards and our strategic investment in the nation’s roads, particularly with the new $12.7 billion AusLink program and our continuing commitment to the highly successful national black spot program. Under that program, each year from 2005 to 2008, a total of $45 million will be spent on the AusLink black spot program, which will fund work on addressing some 370 dangerous black spots throughout Australia.

In the late 1990s, we led the development of the current 10-year National Road Safety Strategy, which has a very ambitious target of a 40 per cent reduction in the population road fatality rate by the year 2010. That strategy was formally endorsed by all ministers of the Australian Transport Council in November 2000. Up until the end of 2004, Australia was well on track to achieving that 2010 fatality reduction target. However, sadly, 2005 was a disappointing year for road safety, with 1,635 people being killed on our nation’s roads. That is an increase of 52 on the previous year’s figure for fatalities, and it was the first time the annual road toll had increased since the year 2000.

Road safety is a collective responsibility involving all governments at all levels, industry groups, community organisations and each and every one of us as individuals. The Australian government will continue to work closely with these groups to find new solutions that can drastically cut the trauma on our roads. But, ultimately, no matter how much you spend on roads, no matter how much you upgrade the roads and no matter how much you improve the technology of the vehicles, road safety depends on the actions of individuals—each and every one of us who uses the roads, and that is virtually everyone in Australia, whether as a driver, a rider or a pedestrian.

I was extremely disappointed at the significant increase in the Christmas-New Year holiday toll recently. I was reflecting the other day on the fact that I had put forward a road safety message prior to the Christmas-New Year holiday period. That was broadcast widely around Australia, and I wondered how many of the 78 people who died on our roads over the Christmas-New Year period actually heard my message about being safe on our roads over Christmas and, like all of us, thought, ‘Yeah, that’s right; we’ll be safe, and it won’t happen to us,’ when in fact it did happen to those 78 people.

While significant progress has been made in reducing our road toll, that rate of reduction has slowed. Many experts have tried to single out one specific cause for the increase. I guess that is one of the difficulties with road safety—we are all experts, because we are all users, we are all consumers, of road safety in one form or another, so we all have an opinion and we all think we know what the answer is. The preliminary analysis of these deaths that occurred over Christmas showed that most of these tragedies occurred on country roads, and involved motorists losing control, hitting trees, overturning or crossing into the path of oncoming traffic.

Reducing the deaths and injuries on our roads certainly remains my highest priority as minister for roads and, I know, the Australian government’s highest priority, because every single death on our roads is a tragedy for the families, for the communities and for the friends, and it is a national tragedy. The potential that we lose on our roads every year is something that we should all be very concerned about.

I am positive that with better roads, safer cars and better drivers we can all work together to keep this road toll as low as possible. One of the important initiatives that the Australian government has implemented is the novice driver education program. Whilst driving training and licensing in Australia is primarily a state and territory responsibility, the Australian government is particularly concerned about the vulnerability of young, newly licensed and inexperienced drivers. We are currently working with the states and territories to introduce a national, compulsory education scheme for all provisional licence holders. But in the first instance it is important that we have a trial of an innovative driver education program in New South Wales and Victoria, which I hope will commence later this year. This will be delivered to novice drivers, aged 17 to 21 in New South Wales and 18 to 22 in Victoria, when they first obtain their provisional licence. The program is based on learning methods that will help young drivers gain true insight into their own limitations and the risks they face on the roads, leading to safer and better driver behaviour.

This Young Driver Safety Forum was announced in December 2004. It was sponsored by the Australian government and chaired by former minister and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, who I would like to pay tribute to because he was very much a driving force in establishing the Young Driver Safety Forum.

The initial cost of this novice driver education scheme was estimated at around $5 million, but this has substantially increased in the light of detailed development of the curriculum and expert advice on the methodology aspects of the trial, particularly relating to the potential course dropout rates. The budget has now been estimated and actually capped at $10 million.

I am pleased to say that we have confirmed funding contributions currently that amount to $8.6 million. The Australian government has increased its offer from $1 million to $3 million. We have $1 million from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries; $2.5 million from the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority, basically the New South Wales government; half a million dollars from IAG, the Insurance Australia Group; $1.4 million from the Victorian government; $1 million from VicRoads; $0.4 million from the Transport Accident Commission; and $0.2 million from the RACV. We are still waiting for an increased offer from the Victorian government, and they have agreed to provide an additional $1.4 million, subject to certain conditions. We are still discussing those conditions with the Victorian government. I certainly urge Minister Batchelor to look very favourably on our request for an increased contribution from the Victorian government, so that this trial can get under way as quickly as possible.

It is important that we have this trial, because we want to ensure that any novice driver training scheme is not something that encourages young drivers to think—even more than they do now—that they are bulletproof, that they have been trained as expert drivers. In fact, it may increase the potential for speeding or accidents for young drivers, so it is very important that we get this trial right and ensure that it is an effective prototype before we start discussing the roll-out of a compulsory driver training scheme with the states and territories. So I look forward to that happening later this year. I will continue to push forward, working with my senior minister, Warren Truss, on this novice driver training trial.

The Australian government is not just working on increased driver education. As I said, we are building better and safer roads around Australia. I am very pleased to be able to work with my senior minister in implementing the AusLink program over the next five years. It is an innovative and significant step forward in road funding in Australia—some $12.7 billion, the vast majority of that going on road construction. It includes $1.2 billion in Roads to Recovery money, which goes directly to councils. Many of our accidents happen in country areas, on roads that are controlled by local councils. Local councils struggle to maintain their roads and the safety aspect of many of their roads. This is new money. It is additional money, and I know that it is extremely welcomed by local councils throughout Australia.

In addition to that, we provide $1.6 billion every single year to councils right around Australia, directly from the Australian government. That is money that they can also use on their roads to upgrade the condition and improve the safety of those roads. We have $250 million in the Roads to Recovery strategic fund. That is an important addition to the Roads to Recovery program. I am very pleased that I was recently able to secure an additional $100 million for that fund from cabinet. That again will increase the safety of many of our local roads.

Overall there is $178 million in black spot funding. As I mentioned earlier, that is a very important program which specifically targets areas with high rates of accident or injury or high death tolls. It has been a magnificent program, which the Australian government reintroduced when it came to government 10 years ago in 1996.

All the states and territories around Australia are receiving significant increases, despite some of the claims by some of the state and territory roads ministers that their funding has actually been cut. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under AusLink, New South Wales is receiving $3,778.6 million. That is a 77.7 per cent increase in construction funding. Victoria is receiving $2,374.2 million, a 105 per cent increase over the previous five years construction funding; Queensland is receiving $2,734.4 million, an increase of 87.1 per cent; Western Australia is receiving $1,306.2 million, an increase of 110 per cent on the previous five years construction funding; South Australia is receiving $793.6 million, a massive increase of 111.8 per cent; Tasmania is receiving $372.2 million, an increase of 52.9 per cent; the Northern Territory is receiving $264.5 million, an increase of 47.4 per cent; and the ACT is receiving $113.4 million.

You can see that every state and territory in Australia is receiving a significant increase in their construction funding for roads. We have expanded the network. The AusLink network now takes in many more roads than the national highway network did, and we are working in partnership with the states and territories. I think that is an important point to make. The Australian government do not actually build roads. We do not have the legislative authority to move the services, to resume the land or to provide the EIS studies that are necessary for major road construction. We fund the New South Wales and other state governments, we fund the territories and we fund the councils, but we need to rely on them to work in partnership. I would encourage the states to continue to work with the Australian government in partnership so that we can roll out a better and safer road network around Australia.

One project we are working on at the moment is the Pacific Highway. That is probably one of the most high-profile roads in Australia. Far too many people have died on the Pacific Highway. But over the past 10 years the Australian government have contributed some $656 million to that road. We will have duplicated some 44 per cent once we finish the projects that are under construction at the moment. We are making significant progress. We are providing another $160 million per year over the next three years, working in conjunction with the New South Wales government. We have the F3 Freeway widening. In Victoria we have made a commitment to duplicate the Hume Highway by 2012. We have added additional resources to the Deer Park section and the Goulburn Valley Highway and $107 million to the Calder Highway. In Queensland we have committed $120 million to the Tugun bypass and $556 million to the Ipswich Motorway. So you can see that all around Australia we are committed to better and safer roads. We are committed to reducing the road toll. I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to put forward what the Australian government is doing to reduce death and injury on our roads. Again, I thank the committee for their work on the report.

Debate (on motion by Mr Georgiou) adjourned.