Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

recognise the tragic loss of 1,605 lives on our roads in 2006, including 336 in Queensland;

(2)

recognise that road crashes remain the biggest killer of young Australians aged 16 to 25 and that in any given year, people aged between 18 and 24 are twice as likely to die in road smashes than other drivers;

(3)

also recognise that researchers at the University of Queensland have calculated that the death and injury from road accidents costs the national economy some $17 billion a year, or the equivalent of 2.3 per cent of Australia’s gross national income; and

(4)

commend the Government for extending the AusLink Black Spot program, which has already eliminated some 700 dangerous crash sites in Queensland alone, for a further two years, from 2006-07 to 2007-08, at a cost of $90 million.

I am pleased to speak in the parliament today on a very important issue. It essentially concerns the number of road fatalities in the state of Queensland and generally across Australia. Queensland’s road fatalities as of last Thursday, 24 May, stood at 144, and we are not even halfway through the 2007 calendar year. That figure represents 18 more than at the same time last year. If this trend continues, Queensland will record its worst annual road toll figures since 1997, when 360 people were tragically killed. We will be seeing death figures around the 400 mark if this trend continues. This is terribly sad and a shocking probability.

University of Queensland research contends that, on average, every death and injury on our roads has an impact on at least 10 other people, including family members, friends and the wider community. In 2006, the state of Queensland suffered its worst road toll in 10 years, with 337 fatalities. For the benefit of the House, I will give the figures from the previous years. In 2005 there were 328 fatalities; in 2004, there were 311; in 2003, 310; in 2002, 322; in 2001, 324; and in 2000, 317 Australians were tragically killed on Queensland roads. The national figure in 2006 was well in excess of 1,000—1,605 Australians lost their lives on our roads.

My own federal electorate of Ryan has experienced the trauma of its own residents being killed in road fatalities. Last December, the tragic deaths of two young Australians, Daniel and Toby East, two brothers from Pinjarra Hills in the beautiful western suburbs of Ryan, touched the electorate in a way that I have not seen during my time in the area and certainly not while I have been the federal member. These two young students had a full and rich life ahead of them—two lives that gave so much joy to their family, loved ones and friends.

Every life is precious, but all of us will perhaps feel especially sad when we consider that road crashes remain the biggest killer of young Australians aged between 16 and 25. Each year in Australia about 300 young men and 80 young women aged under 25 die in car crashes, out of a national road toll of around 1,600. This means that in any given year Australians aged between 18 and 24 are twice as likely to die in road accidents as drivers in any other age group. Per kilometre driven, the death rate of drivers aged under 25 is more than four times that of drivers aged between 25 and 54.

I do not believe there is one single solution but rather that we must implement a suite of measures to bring down the number of fatal road accidents. The Australian government’s AusLink Black Spot Program is an initiative that is certainly making a huge impact on keeping down road fatalities. The program is a great example of the practical way in which the federal government is working to reduce the road toll and is addressing the problem at the local level, on local streets and at local intersections.

I understand a statewide online survey conducted by the RACQ in February last year of more than 10,000 Queensland drivers found that the most preferred options for cutting the road toll were identifying or fixing potential road and traffic hazards, with which 99 per cent of respondents agreed, and fixing black spots with known crash histories, with which 99 per cent of respondents also agreed.

The AusLink Black Spot Program is now in its 11th year. Since 1996 it has eliminated some 750 dangerous crash sites in Queensland through more than $97.6 million of federal funding. The Black Spot Program has been extended by the Howard government for a further two years at a cost of $90 million. The Ryan electorate will share in these funds, with $287,000 allocated to fix the traffic signals at the intersection of Westminster Road and Clarence Road at Indooroopilly. Anyone who knows the local roads of Indooroopilly will realise that this intersection is in desperate need of upgrade. Ryan has benefited in the past and I hope that it will continue to benefit from this worthwhile program.

Another initiative that I believe will have a long-term impact is the introduction of compulsory defensive driving courses for all new drivers. Last year I called for defensive driving courses to be made compulsory for new drivers during the licence application process. The incredible feedback I got from Ryan mums and dads was overwhelming. (Time expired)

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport, Roads and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon as the shadow minister for transport, roads and tourism to speak in support of the motion moved by the member for Ryan. I note that, while there is a long-term trend in reducing the loss of lives on Australian roads, we are still a long way from achieving our 2010 target of 40 per cent below the 1999 benchmark. Most concerning is the fact that since the end of 2004 a substantial gap has opened between actual and required outcomes. In fact, in the 2006 reporting year road deaths were 2.5 per cent higher than in the previous year even though they were down almost 15 per cent compared with 1999. Sadly, in Tasmania we have achieved no gains since 1999.

On an international basis, Australia ranks 11th out of 26 nations in terms of road deaths per 100,000 population. I think we would all agree that, while we perform better than the OECD median, this is not good enough. National improvements in the number of road fatalities since 1999 have been concentrated in three areas: vehicle occupants in multi-vehicle crashes, pedestrians and cyclists. Since 2002 there has been a marked decrease in the number of road deaths involving articulated trucks. Despite the fact that the number of kilometres travelled by articulated trucks increased by 13 per cent between 2000 and 2005, the number of fatalities and fatal crashes involving articulated trucks actually decreased by 19 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

These are very important achievements because, in coping with Australia’s rapidly growing freight task, heavy vehicle travel will be the major component of total growth in vehicle travel over the next decade. Consequently, we must continue to focus on ways to reduce heavy vehicle related road trauma, including reducing heavy vehicle aggressivity, exposure and crash risk, and improving light vehicle crashworthiness.

As the member for Ryan noted in his motion, the AusLink Black Spot Program is a very important Australian government initiative aimed at reducing road trauma—and it has the federal Labor Party’s support. In government, the Labor Party would retain the Black Spot Program. I welcome its continuation with increased funding until 2014, the end of the AusLink 2 period.

I note that the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics is currently evaluating the success of the program to date. I look forward to seeing that report in the near future because it is essential that the program be targeted to achieve the best possible national road safety outcomes. I say that because the Black Spot Program is too important to be abused in the same way that we have seen the Howard government’s abuse of the AusLink Strategic Regional Program in the lead-up to the last election and over the last few weeks.

Ignoring departmental guidelines and eligibility criteria, the Minister for Transport and Regional Services has over the last two weeks doled out $250 million, based on electoral map considerations of where road funding should go rather than on proper transport criteria, including road safety issues. Since the budget, the minister has showered largesse on safe and marginal coalition seats, spending $205 million or more than 80 per cent of the total fund on 72 projects in just 30 coalition seats. By contrast, 10 projects in six Labor electorates received only $27 million or about five per cent of the total fund. I am hopeful, given the seriousness of its objectives, that we can keep the Black Spot Program away from political considerations and guarantee it ongoing transparency and honesty in decision making.

Based on the previous BTRE evaluation in 2001 of the first three years of the program, it is estimated that from 1996 to 1999 the program generated $1.3 billion NPV and a benefit-cost ratio of 14. The evaluation showed that greater benefits accrued in urban areas and that certain engineering treatments were more successful than others. Roundabouts were highly successful in improving safety in both capital cities and regional areas. It also showed that the use of traffic lights, medians, non-skid surfaces and traffic islands on approaches were successful. In regional areas, signs and new traffic lights had the most success. By contrast, despite its popularity as a treatment, there was no evidence that sealing road shoulders in cities had any significant impact on road safety.

Hopefully, the lessons learned from the BTRE evaluation have been applied over the last few years to deliver even better results from the Black Spot Program. I commend the motion to the House.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate today and to congratulate my colleague the member for Ryan for raising this matter. He is a strong campaigner on road safety issues in his electorate. I know he has taken a very strong stand in the campaign against hooning, something that I think he really does deserve some credit for. It is good that he proceeds with that, because I know that there is a lot of concern in the community about people behaving badly on the roads and the risks that that creates for residents. My congratulations and support go to the member for Ryan on his steps in that regard.

Today we are speaking about the Black Spot Program. In the electorate of Blair, we have had quite a lot of success in attracting road funding for black spot projects. The Commonwealth funding for these projects has been well received in our area and it has certainly been of assistance. I would like to speak about some of the projects that have been funded under the Black Spot Program, in particular a couple of recent announcements. One involves a project outside the Brassalls Shopping Centre at Albion Street and Workshops Street which is being funded to the tune of $113,000 by the Commonwealth. That was just announced late last week. I saw the local councillor at the weekend and she endorsed that project and said what a good thing it was that the Commonwealth has come to the party on it. I visited the SES at the weekend in the electorate of Blair where there is to be some work at the intersection of Thorn Street and South Street, in the vicinity of the SES—$35,000 is to be allocated there.

These projects are allocated according to areas of need. So it is important that we get adequate assessment of the areas of need and the dangers as well as the remedies being proposed when we undertake these projects. There are some very good black spot projects being undertaken in country areas within the electorate of Blair. For example, up near Jimna on the Kilcoy to Murgon road, funding has been received for work on 17 kilometres of that road. It is a windy gravel road and that work is well received. In the area of Brassall, $40,000 is being spent on the Vogel Road and Haig Street intersection.

However, I would like to turn to the behaviour of the Queensland Department of Main Roads in relation to one particular black spot project—that is, the ill-fated project to modify the signals and lanes at the intersection of East and Limestone Streets. That was a black spot project recommended by the gurus in the state main roads department for which the Commonwealth allocated $300,000. The money was paid in November 2006 and fully acquitted with the Department of Transport and Regional Services in December 2006. Then it was ripped up in March 2007 because it was a total waste of taxpayers’ dollars. The main roads department in Queensland and its minister have an appalling record in dealing with traffic difficulties in the Ipswich area.

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

Mr Ripoll interjecting

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we know, and the member for Oxley knows, the proposal for the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway is an absolute travesty, and he continues to cling to that, despite the opprobrium of everyone in his electorate. Here is another example of Main Roads making a total ass of themselves with a proposal. They took $300,000 of Commonwealth money and basically produced a project that did not work. It was condemned by everybody locally and laughed at by the city council, and was ripped out three months after it was completed. Now $300,000 would do a lot in black spot funding. It is a very important project and they completely stuffed it up, as they have done with their plans for the upgrade of Ipswich Motorway. It is great that the Commonwealth has funded the Goodna bypass instead.

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

I want to start by acknowledging John and Gillian Grant and the 51 club crew who are in the House today. They have come to see our national capital and how the parliament works, and I know they have not been disappointed today. Speaking in this place on road issues is always important, whether they be roads of national importance, state and local roads or black spot funded roads. If you listened to this government, you could be excused for thinking that what was returned to us from our taxes for road funding for critical road infrastructure was only by the good grace of this government, and that it was some sort of reward for having voted the right way the last time around, that you might get a few crumbs off the table for urgent road upgrades and safety needs in your area.

The motion today from the member for Ryan on road funding has as much credibility as the Prime Minister does when he talks about caring for workers. The reality is that, when it comes to road funding in Queensland, the Howard government has an 11-year track record of abysmal neglect. That is the reality. No matter how many times the member for Blair smirks on road issues, it is 11 years of doing nothing—that is the reality. We have barely been provided with enough crumbs for the past decade-plus to keep our struggling federal roads—

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Have you read the proposal?

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

in a barely safe condition, but now that the polling is going very badly for the government, suddenly we see the massive promise of big money—$2.3 billion, in fact.

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Johnson interjecting

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

It is amazing how much road funding can be promised when polling suggests you just might lose some key marginal seats.

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Johnson interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ryan is warned!

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

Of course, I am referring to the $2.3 billion and the little that has been done for 11 years. If you did the sums—and I will let other people do that—then you would know exactly what I am talking about. Tragically, even with the plans for the Goodna bypass and other road funding projects, including those for black spots—and we will not hear much about the Goodna bypass from the member for Ryan because he dare not speak those words in his electorate, that is for sure.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

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

When the time comes for budgets and to actually allocate funding, after 11 years we are still waiting. That is the reality: nothing has actually been delivered yet.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

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

They are promises for the future, after the next election; not now, not yesterday, not last year but after the next election.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair is warned!

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

That is a long time to wait and to sit on your hands and do nothing. That is exactly what we are now getting as a further promise from this government. What the members for Blair and Ryan and this government are promising is that they will spend $2.3 billion of your hard-earned money, but they will make you wait another five years at least before you are allowed to use the road they want to provide you—five more years on the Ipswich Motorway, five more years at least in the traffic jams, with the safety issues and everything that we have been waiting for.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair has been warned twice and will remove himself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Blair then left the chamber.

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

It is about time the member for Blair was ejected from this House for not caring about the good people of Blair, Ipswich and the western corridor. As he skulks out of this place, I know they will remember him at election time for the things he has not done. In his own electorate of Blair they have missed out for a very long time and they are still missing out. At least I can say that in Oxley I have delivered the Ipswich Motorway upgrade in my section. Along the Oxley corridor, $600 million was spent—

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Johnson interjecting

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ryan will remove himself under standing order 94(a) as well.

The member for Ryan then left the chamber.

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

not because this government somehow wanted to give that money to people in my electorate but because, after a long time of campaigning by the community, can I say, and by me assisting them, we have delivered that funding, because I wanted that money and I wanted that road upgraded. Members opposite have opposed it and they have gotten exactly what they desired since they were elected: nothing, because they wanted no money to come to the area and that is what they got. If you are a member of the government and you tell your roads minister, ‘I don’t want any money to upgrade the Ipswich Motorway in my part of the world’ then you will not get any, because that is easy to do. But if you are trying to achieve funding, that is a little bit more complicated.

The reality is, if you want a full plan that will deliver roads and infrastructure way beyond 2030, you need to have a complete plan, a full plan. You do not need just one road. I am not a one-road man. I think the Ipswich Motorway upgrade is essential and critical and should be the first cab off the rank, but I also believe you need other roads in the area. You need a road to the south, and that is the extension of the Centenary Highway, through Springfield and the Ripley Valley and back to Ipswich. With it comes a brand new rail corridor and rail, which will do an immense amount for relieving traffic and pressure off the Ipswich Motorway.

You also need a proper western bypass—a real one, not a Goodna bypass that was dreamt up by the member for Blair and maybe a couple of his cronies; a real one that is studied and done properly, with a fully accountable and transparent process where the community has some involvement. People will get a choice. They were not given a choice but they will have a choice at the next election in three, four or five months time. I think they will be voting with their feet and telling this government exactly what they think about road funding in Queensland. Bring on the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway. (Time expired)

John Anderson (Gwydir, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say at the outset that I commend the mover of this motion, who sits immediately behind me, for his efforts in bringing this matter to our attention. I think we are all rightly concerned about the tragic loss of lives on Australian roads despite the very real progress that has been made since road trauma and crisis galvanised the attention of the Australian people back in the early 1970s.

Briefly, it is worth making a couple of points of history in relation to our early days in government. One is that in those days we faced a very real budgetary crisis in this country: government outlays were in a mess, government debt was huge and rapidly expanding and we faced real constraints in the early years in relation to road funding. I think it is fair to say that, in my case, I was rather taken aback at how quickly economic growth started to increase the load of the transport task in this country. That immediately highlighted two issues, not just the obvious one of the need to find more money for roads but another issue—that is, despite the fact that we were a century or so into Federation in this country, we had never developed a properly coordinated national transport plan. It had not happened. One of the things that disappoints me a little is that there is precious little recognition, even to this day, that we now have one. We do not run tax policy on the basis of complete ad hocery or political expediency—you do not run health policy on that basis, you do not run a defence policy on that basis and you should not run your transport policy on that basis.

AusLink, which was very strongly resisted by the states for a long time, it has to be said, is an integrated, thought-through national transport plan for this country. In the first instance, as evidence of that, it gives us a national highway system which is matched by a national railway system. We have a national highway system because the states do not have adequate interest in national and international connectivity; the federal government does, on behalf of all Australians, and it ought to construct and maintain the national highway system to a high order. But, almost by definition—it is so obvious that it is like the nose on your face; you really should not miss it if you think about it—you need a matching rail network for freight. Under AusLink we secure that. A vital part of road safety in this country is in ensuring that there are no more trucks on the road than makes economic, social or environmental sense. That is why we now have a real federal commitment to operating a national rail network, which over time will take more and more pressure off our roads—not a commitment to operating trains, which governments are no better at doing than they would be at operating trucks. It will make our roads safer, drive the road funding and, I think, produce valuable environmental outcomes.

A comment about the subsets of AusLink is that very often, to be quite frank, those of us who are elected to this place need to make sensible decisions about the funding of infrastructure. The truth is that the Roads to Recovery program, which funds local roads everywhere in every council area across Australia, is not only popular but makes common sense, but no BCR model would support it. A benefit-cost ratio conducted by economic gurus in this town would tell you that Roads to Recovery or the FAGs grants for local roads cannot be justified on economic grounds. All of us would recognise what nonsense that is. We might as well say, ‘We’re no longer going to kerb and gutter our suburban streets’ because I do not think you could make a BCR stack those up either. Common sense tells you that virtually everything we produce, everything we value add, everything we export starts its life on a local road. There is a very powerful case for upgrading local roads.

We have brought the crash rate, the accident rate, down dramatically in terms of the distance and kilometres travelled by Australian people over the last 35 years. Better cars, better roads, better training, seatbelts and drink-driving laws and their pursuit have all helped. The reality is: we need to do more. Our road toll is still too high, particularly amongst young men. The Black Spot Program is part of it. I see the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads at the table; I urge him to do whatever is necessary to get the road training trial up for young people. It is now about 2½ years since I committed to doing that. It is time we rolled it out. We must do more to get young people to drive sensibly within their skill set. It is not simply a question of expanding their skill set; their skill set needs to be observed and recognised. (Time expired)

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I endorse the words of the previous speaker; there is no issue that is more important. The majority of my contribution to this debate will deal with young people and the need to address the issue of the loss of life of young people on our roads. This motion highlights the impact and the enormous cost to our nation of death and injury caused by road accidents. It also recognises the impact of the Black Spot Program, a fine program that I and members of this House support, and recognises how it has worked to eliminate dangerous crash sites.

The biggest cause of death and disability for young people aged 15 to 25 is car accidents. The enormous cost of road accidents involving young people was brought home to me very graphically last week when the son of one of my children’s friends was killed in a road accident. A young 18-year-old hopped in a car with a driver who had been drinking—an action that many young people do—went down to the shop to buy something and was dead five minutes after he left home. This highlights the issue of the danger of young people and driving.

The World Health Organisation has identified road crashes as the leading cause of death of young people under the age of 25 worldwide. Road traffic collisions cost an estimated $US518 billion worldwide. New South Wales statistics for 2004 for 17- to 25-year-olds recorded 856 casualties of road traumas and 187 deaths. These young people only hold 15 per cent of the licences but are involved in 28 per cent of the crashes. It is a very sad indictment of the failure by all levels and all persuasions of government. I call on all governments to work together to try and solve this problem. Research has shown that we need to look at changing behaviours and, at the same time, put in place laws that are going to prevent young people from losing their lives.

Other statistics show that young people account for only 15 per cent of licence holders, but a third of road accidents fall into this group. First-year P-plate holders are four times more likely to be involved in an accident than a driver over the age of 26. Nearly half of all trauma admissions to New South Wales hospitals in 2005 were serious injury road trauma and, of these, 28 per cent were aged 15 to 24. It is very sad to hear about the high level of accidents but it is well reported, and I think members of this House know that. Every year drivers are killed or injured in road traffic accidents. As I have highlighted already, statistics show that this younger group has the highest number of accidents leading to death and disability. Research shows that risk and behaviour education, like the NRMA forums throughout New South Wales—

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The honourable member for Shortland will have leave to continue her remarks when the debate is resumed.