Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to begin by acknowledging the work of Glenda Staniford, president of the BUS Action Group, and Jan Shaloub, who are in the gallery here tonight—thank you for being here, ladies. The BUS Action Group was formed in March 2001 in my electorate of Gilmore following the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy in a bus accident near Sussex Inlet on the South Coast of New South Wales.

I stand in this House today experiencing a sense of deja vu which takes me back to August 2001 when my former colleague and friend Kay Elson, the then member for Forde, put up a private member’s business issue to this chamber calling for seatbelts to be fitted to all new school buses. She said: ‘If we do not, we will be having this same debate in five, 10 or 20 years. I just hate to think of whose sons, daughters and grandchildren will have to pay the ultimate price in the meantime.’ Regrettably, we are facing the same debate, and since then more than 24 families have paid the ultimate price and have lost loved ones in fatal bus accidents, including three school bus victims. Many hundreds more families are paying a lesser price, but are still suffering from the long-term effects of trauma and injuries sustained by the survivors of over 75 serious accidents involving 38 school buses.

In the past the federal government left it to the states and territories to determine where route buses without seatbelts can be used. The New South Wales government took the National Risk Guidelines for School Bus Routes for endorsement to the Australian Transport Council meeting on 18 November 2005, supposedly to achieve uniform national standards for bus safety. In an act of gross hypocrisy by federal, state and territory ministers, these guidelines were made voluntary, and even if states and territories use them there is no required action, such as installing seatbelts, even on the most hazardous bus routes. This farce was just a stalling tactic, as in some states there have been no safety improvements. New South Wales, which took the proposal to the Australian Transport Council, have done nothing in four years since the guidelines were endorsed, and have not even released their classification of high-risk school bus routes, which were determined in January 2008.

Following vigorous lobbying of both federal and state governments, the Howard government provided a funding subsidy of $40 million in 2007 under the Seatbelts for Kids program, to assist coach companies to fund the installation of seatbelts in school buses. We all felt relieved that this problem was going to be addressed. However, less than $2 million has been spent ever since the funding was made available. Only 79 school buses across Australia have been specially fitted with seatbelts.

A few weeks ago in Perth 23 pupils were injured in an urban bus crash. The next day more pupils were reported injured in a school bus crash near Ipswich in Queensland. On 11 May two school buses collided in the Blue Mountains, in a 40 kilometre an hour zone. Even at that speed 40 pupils were injured. These are just some of the accidents reported. The incidence of school bus crashes has been amply demonstrated and accepted by governments at every level, yet governments are dragging their feet. It was hoped that a voluntary program supported by funding would be an adequate incentive to hasten fittings, but this is proving not to be the case.

The Royal Australian College of Surgeons trauma committee, in response to the Australian Transport Council’s discussion document on bus safety said:

Although we agree with the research that a serious casualty crash has a low probability of occurring, the probabilities should one occur of serious injury and mortality are extremely high. We would therefore predict a devastating bus crash as one of the most likely mass casualty events that could occur in Australia.

Evidence of the value of seatbelts reducing the incidence of injury has been amply demonstrated since Australia introduced the compulsory wearing of seatbelts in 1972. Can the minister explain why federally he enforces strict safety standards for coaches, as in Australian Design Rule 68/00, but allows state and territory governments to use any bus on any road without the same Australian Design Rule 68/00 safety standards? Is Minister Albanese aware that many buses used for country school bus runs and charter hire are still of the same fatally flawed design as those involved in the Kempsey and Grafton bus disasters in 1989 in which 55 people were killed? DOTARS claim that an Australian Design Rule cannot define where a bus can operate—that it is a state and territory government responsibility. Yet ADR 68/00 presently has an exemption for route service buses, therefore the exemption can be amended to mandate ADR 68/00 safety requirements for non-urban bus travel. This was the original intention, as per the regulation impact statement for ADR 68/00, ‘Occupant protection in buses’, which says:

The proposed regulation is to provide improved occupant protection in buses and coaches other than city route buses by the fitting of three point seat belts to all passenger seats.

This states the intention, but a poorly worded exemption has allowed state and territory governments to continue using unsafe buses with seats lower than one metre in height to be defined as ‘urban route service buses’ which are therefore allowed to operate anywhere, even on highly dangerous non-urban roads.

I call on Minister Albanese to change the exemption so that the route service buses cannot operate outside urban and city areas without ADR 68/00 safety compliance. The transport minister can do more but refuses to, even though parents continue to lobby for his intervention to legislate changes to existing Australian Design Rule 68/00, which currently provides seatbelt safety legislation for coaches. ADR 68/00 coach compliance in 1995 has resulted in a fantastic safety record: no seatbelted coach passenger has died since. Hundreds of rural school buses travel on the same roads and highways as coaches, so why hasn’t the minister done anything about rectifying this anomaly where coach passengers have seatbelt protection but bus passengers do not? This is not just about school buses; any ordinary bus can travel on high-speed Australian roads carrying passengers without seatbelt protection simply because the bus has low back seats—that is, less than one metre in height. This unsafe bus travel has caused many deaths and serious injuries to bus passengers in just the past eight years. The minister is aware of this and has done nothing to rectify these unsafe practices.

A 1995 Federal Office of Road Safety report, Analysis of improving occupant protection in existing buses, conducted an analysis of bus crashes between 1987 and 1994, with estimates of injury reduction. They examined 18 non-urban bus accidents and overwhelmingly determined that fatalities, serious and minor injuries would have been reduced by almost half: 45 deaths instead of 95.

Buses manufactured for urban use are being used for non-urban bus travel. This is highly dangerous and it is unacceptable that the minister can allow this unsafe practice to continue. As the percentage of non-urban school bus travel is approximately 15 per cent of total school bus travel, a three- to five-year compliance deadline is easily achievable and must be set with federal, state and territory government assistance. The cost to fix seatbelts has been exaggerated in government reports by including metropolitan urban buses. Upgrading non-urban rural buses to Australian Design Rule 68/00 safety standards is cost effective.

I call on the minister to amend Australian Design Rule 68/00 so that the only exemption is for route service buses operating on urban roads, by removing the current exemption for any bus with a seat height of less than one metre and by amending it to read, ‘All buses operating on non-urban roads and highways must meet the requirements in this rule, ensuring that lap-sash seatbelt protection and all safety features within Design Rule 68/00 presently afforded to coach passengers apply to any bus travelling on any high-speed road, highway or dirt road’; and by calling on the state and territory governments to support mandating bus seatbelts.

Further, I call on the government to legislate the amendments to ADR 68/00 by January 2011 and to ensure compliance with the amendments by school buses and all affected routes by 2020, beginning with all new and replacement buses. This gives ample lead time. I also ask that the federal transport minister place lap-sash seatbelts for non-urban bus travel on the agenda at each and every Australian Transport Council meeting until there is certification that all buses used on non-urban roads meet the safety standards within Australian Design Rule 68/00.

It is clear from the snail’s pace of uptake that a voluntary code on this issue is not going to work; therefore, the only practical and responsible course of action is to mandate the installation of seatbelts on school buses, coupled with the withdrawal of funding assistance, by January 2020. I again thank the BUS Action Group for taking the time to travel all the way from Ulladulla to be here in the House tonight. Thank you, ladies.

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the honourable member for Gilmore on bringing this matter before the House and giving it an airing. I do not have sufficient information or details about the operation of some of the technical aspects of the motion, particularly the Australian design rule that the honourable member talked about in the scheme, to commit, but I can certainly commit to the intent of her private member’s motion. I welcome the honourable member’s visitors from the bus action group who are in this place to hear this discussion tonight. You are most welcome.

The honourable member for Gilmore said that governments have left it to the state and territory governments. I researched this issue today, but that is another area where I would need some particular information because I am not clear on who has the actual power. I think it is with the state and territory governments, but I will turn to that later when I mention some of the other actions that the states have done, particularly Western Australia, which I found in my research. I am not sure what legislative power, either formally or coercively, exists in this area.

I am mindful when we discuss such issues to go gently in my speeches, but I realise that such issues also demand strong action to try to correct some areas. Families who have lost loved ones in bus and car accidents do listen to and read what we say in this place and it is never my intention at all to add inadvertently to anyone’s grief when we are talking about fatalities, particularly of children. I will try to stick to the facts in speaking about road safety, including for buses, which is what we are looking at tonight.

My licence is endorsed for driving small buses up to a certain size as long as it is not for a commercial use. I used to drive them a lot with children, babies, a lot of women and some men. I was thinking of it recently because I was asked to do it again when people needed to get from A to B and they did not have transport. They knew I had that endorsement. When I used to do it it was a tremendous responsibility to have the safety of those people in my hands, particularly the children. I have enormous respect for bus drivers who do this day in and day out, particularly driving over some of the roads in my area of country New South Wales which can be even more challenging. I am mindful of that. When I was asked recently to do it I did say yes because it looked like they would not be able to get from A to B—it transpired that I did not have to—but I was a bit apprehensive about it. I was thinking of the responsibility.

I know some of the roads from having travelled in New South Wales. I remember once visiting a place where the school bus driver, a local woman, used to stop the bus because the bridge was unsafe. She got the kids to walk across the bridge before she drove across the bridge and put the kids back in the bus and continued on. We helped get the money to fix that bridge. It was so clear that that had to happen.

I have campaigned on issues of safety over the years. One issue I particularly took up was the speed zones going past schools. I had a big fight, particularly with the Roads and Traffic Authority in that area. I fought tooth and nail. I know there are a lot of people who have fought on that particularly issue in different parts of New South Wales at different times. I first got involved in it when Wal Murray was the minister for roads at state level. As the honourable member for Gilmore said tonight, things go slowly, and too slowly when we are talking about the safety of kids. All of these areas have taken time trying to get the states and territories on board. I still think 40 kilometres per hour is too fast past schools, but I am not sure I will get it any lower.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just want seat belts.

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know, we do want seat belts. That took years. We will have to keep lobbying. I had a look at some of the research before I came up here and looked particularly at children in buses. I do not have the information that the honourable member for Gilmore has, but I found that the issue of safety with children around schools is still primarily in the area of pedestrian safety. It does not mean that things do not happen in buses, because they clearly do.

Road trauma is a major public health problem facing this country. We know that. Last year 1,509 people died on our roads—1,509 people too many—and 33,000 people were seriously injured. It is particularly heartbreaking when it affects young people. Research and work around road safety in Australia has been going on for some 40 years. Despite the terrible rate of accidents we have, it has actually halved over that period, even with all the cars and buses we have on the road. That is due to tougher laws, better policing, improved driver training, better road design, extensive education campaigns, new vehicle technologies and, yes, seat belts. Like a lot of members in this place, I was around when seatbelts were not the law. We used to drive without them and never thought about it. When they came in they clearly showed a correlation in the prevention of preventing deaths and serious injury.

Decisions as to which type of bus is most suited for a particular service is regulated by state and territory governments. They have responsibility for the service regulation and the road rules. The fitting of seat belts also rests with state and territory governments. In 2005 the Australian Transport Council approved the voluntary national guidelines for risk assessment of school bus routes that the honourable member raised tonight. That is what the state and territory governments use for assessing school bus routes. They are currently progressing their own arrangements. The honourable member wants that speeded up.

In my research I found a report from the Sunday Times from 11 February 2010—I am not sure if you saw it; this was in Western Australia. It said:

EACH of the State’s school buses has now been fitted with seatbelts, Education Minister Liz Constable announced today.

       …         …         …

“Western Australia is the first State in the nation to make seatbelts mandatory for buses used to transport public school students.

I did not think it was mandated in any state or territory. I must admit that when I found that I was a little bit surprised. It probably gives some hope. I looked at South Australia and read some information. I do not have anything on New South Wales, but I do know it is not mandatory in our state. I know that but I do not have the details. The government of South Australia announced in 2006 that it would fit seatbelts to all new school buses—I am not sure about old school buses—and that private operators would be required to tender. This is similar to what happens in Queensland. The program introduced by the previous government, which the honourable member was a member of—was announced in September 2007. That program has prevailed and the government is supporting the program. (Time expired)

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion by the member for Gilmore concerning seatbelts on buses. In so doing, I say ‘Good evening’ to our guests from the Bus Action Group from Ulladulla. The member for Ryan was quite right. On 20 August 2001 I stood in this place to support the then member for Forde on a motion with very similar sentiments to those outlined by the member for Gilmore. I do congratulate her on her motion and on the substance of the motion itself.

I am really wondering what happened in that decade because, when I look at a number of the so-called state road safety websites, I am very surprised by how little comment there is supporting seatbelts on our buses, particularly those used to transport our schoolchildren. That is a great pity. I fully appreciate the argument of the industry when they say that this is a major cost factor, but new buses come with new standards and new requirements. Governments, both state and federal, are always raising the bar on the safety and technical requirements of these buses, so it should not be news that we would mandate that these buses contain seatbelts.

One of the other issues is that, if you cannot allow more students on a bus than can be seated, that is going to have serious cost imposts. I appreciate the argument, but it must of course lead to questions not just of general safety but of sheer comfort for students on buses. In 2001, that infamous year, I actually did a survey of students in Circular Head on issues relating to buses. I know that I may get different responses today, but I do wonder whether they would actually change much in substance. One of the things they talked about was that the buses were uncomfortable—three and four to a seat. They even went on to say—and I think this brings out some of the issues here, not just for comfort but for safety as well—‘If we went to school from grade 1 to grade 12 on the bus, we would sit in uncomfortable positions of three to a seat for two hours a day, five days a week, 40 weeks a year for 12 years.’ This equals, according to their survey, 200 full days—that is, 24 hours—sitting cramped in a bus seat over a student’s school life. So they are uncomfortable and they feel unsafe because of the lack of comfort in the bus.

What I found interesting, though, is that when they were surveyed back in 2001—and I am sorry this is so old—the one thing they split fifty-fifty on was whether they should have seatbelts. They were really concerned that they were uncomfortable and they were worried about behaviour on the bus. Behaviour, I would add, may be affected by whether they are wearing a seatbelt, quite frankly, because if they are wearing one they are at least fixed hopefully in a sculptured seat designed for them. That is a very important safety issue as well. But they were really concerned about behaviour more than anything. That does raise the whole issue of school buses, not just for seatbelts. I do support the advocacy of mandatory regulations for seatbelts.

Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 41. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The member for Braddon will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.