Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Road Safety, I present the committee's interim report entitled Improving road safety in Australia.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—As the chair of the Joint Select Committee on Road Safety, I'm pleased to be able to table the interim report. Firstly, can I thank my colleagues on the other side of this floor for their bipartisan contributions not only during the public hearings but in the last six months. This interim report sets out the issues raised in evidence taken from 22 witnesses and in excess of 50 written submissions. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the committee was unable to take all evidence from submitting parties prior to the date set for this interim report. Since the completion of the interim report, we had a further two days of hearings—on 17 and 20 August—receiving evidence from a further 20 organisations, with the addition of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

The role of the Office of Road Safety and that of the joint select committee cannot be understated. The committee's role in providing parliamentary oversight and input into road safety is paramount. It will help to shape the role of the Office of Road Safety as one that is necessarily permanent—linking in the work that the committee needs to do in making recommendations for the next National Road Safety Strategy and the oversight of the success of that strategy. Accordingly, I commend the interim report and its findings to the House.