Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow is Fatality Free Friday, and, of course, last week was National Road Safety Week. These are events which draw road safety to top of mind, which of course it should always be—never more so than when considering that Australia's road toll has increased, sadly, by nearly five per cent in the last 12 months. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that represents more than 50 additional lives lost this year relative to last. It's pretty clear that more needs to be done to address our Australian road deaths.

So what is the government doing? Our road network is falling into disrepair faster than the government can get on with the ill-fated 90-day review, let alone get new money out of the door. I had never listened to a treasurer on budget night deliver a budget speech to the chamber that doesn't mention the word 'infrastructure'. Perhaps he was looking for the colloquial 'road' or 'roads', but they weren't mentioned either. There was nothing in this budget to improve roads in my local area that are desperately in need of significant upgrades. There was no additional funding to duplicate the Truro freight route, no more funding for the Sturt Highway, no funding for the Malee Highway or Marrabel Road and no funding for the Dukes, the Riddoch or the Princes Highway.

I was at least relieved to see that they maintained the funding status quo for important, longstanding road funding programs such as Roads to Recovery, Bridges Renewal Program, Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Black Spot Program. That was until a coalition colleague in the other place discovered, through questioning the department on Monday, that these four vitally important programs are included in the 90-day review. So not only are more than 400 important road projects under review in South Australia are facing Labor's chopping block across the country but now those opposite want to review funding programs as well, important programs that through state and local governments have delivered billions of dollars in local road improvements, particularly in rural and regional Australia, addressing the national death toll.

The Roads to Recovery Program has delivered $68 million of funding in my electorate alone over the last four years; $52 million to South Australian bridges upgraded under the Bridges Renewal Program; and $70 million to improve South Australia roads and safety under the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program. Now we are facing a situation where these programs are under review; their future is uncertain. This has created shockwaves emanating from this building into the local government sector and to those who earn an income maintaining our national road network. Importantly, Australians deserve better. We need to push road deaths down. You do not do it by reviewing programs and cutting funding.