Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I too congratulate you on your recent appointment as the President of this august institution. Next week, on 19 November, is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. There are 1.3 million people killed on the roads each year and millions more injured worldwide. If we bring that home to Australia, we saw 1,300 people killed on Australian roads last year, with over 30,000 serious injuries requiring hospitalisation. Unfortunately, so far in 2017, we've seen another thousand Australians tragically lose their lives on our nation's roads. The impact on the nation is emotional, social, and economic.

What does this mean for our federal coalition government? When we look at the budget figures and the promises in the budget, we see that, in its first three budgets, the coalition government committed $220 million to the Black Spot Program, which upgrades safety around the nation's most dangerous traffic hotspots, but in fact it only spent $105 million, less than half the amount promised, according to its own budget documents. Now, I would accept that you can take the budget forecasts, and you can look over the forward estimates, and you can have various officers construct various circumstances about how much money has been allocated versus how much is spent and the reasons for that.

But—before I go to explaining the opportunity I had in estimates to pursue this matter—what is the Black Spot Program? We know that a 2012 assessment by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics found that black spots identified under the program, when upgraded and completed, reduced deaths and accidents by an average of 30 per cent—a 30 per cent reduction of accidents resulting in death and injury. So we know. This is not a politically partisan position. The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics found that there's a 30 per cent average reduction in accidents and deaths. We also know that the average black spot project costs $157,000. That is not a huge amount of money, but it has an incredible effect. It reduces deaths and injuries by up to 30 per cent.

So we took this argument to estimates and I put it to the department: if Australians are dying and being injured at identifiable, researched black spots, we should be putting the money there. The argument is that we didn't get it spent. Was that true or not? The department's answer was, 'We didn't spend it.' It's almost incomprehensible, when we've had 1,000 Australians killed this year and many more thousands hospitalised and seriously injured, that we didn't actually spend the money allocated to black spot projects. Black spots are identified because there's an accident, there's an injury, there's a death or there's an identifiable risk, and they should be prioritised. The money should be spent, but there is, unfortunately, a lack of will, either at the ministerial level or at the departmental level, to get the generous commitments—and I do say generous—of this coalition government acted upon and spent. It's almost beyond belief that this could actually be evidence based. Black spot projects cost $157,000, on average, in Australia and they bring about a 30 per cent average reduction in injuries and fatalities. There is a good amount of money allocated to the program; we don't get it spent. We simply do not get the money spent.

One of the excuses was the weather—not whether it should be done or not but the weather. Living in Australia for as long as I have, I thought that we have fairly benign weather. I do accept that in more northern parts of the country you have a three-month wet season which might impact on roadworks, but, generally speaking, we should be able to get out and do these projects, but we're not doing them, and we're not doing them because of the lack of leadership both within the department and within the ministry. The Hon. Darren Chester is a reputable minister. He has a very large portfolio, and I contest that there is no-one taking care of road safety. The government is asleep at the wheel, the department is asleep at the wheel and there is no plan, no strategic direction, to get out there and reduce serious injuries and deaths. There have been over 1,000 deaths this year alone, and there were 1,300 last year and over 30,000 serious injuries requiring hospitalisation. The cost to the economy is over $30 billion. The human cost is immense. There is not an electorate in any part of this country that isn't affected by this failure to spend the allocated money in these areas. I contest it's about time that the department had a strategic plan to get to Vision Zero, take the best of what is happening in every jurisdiction in Australia and make it happen.

Some will argue that the Commonwealth does not have jurisdiction in road safety areas, but I've got to tell you that, if you're holding the purse strings, you can determine the outcome. If you control the amount of funds that are spent on the nation's roads, particularly in respect of black spots, you can allocate it to the jurisdiction that is doing the most effective work in making black spots safe and reduce deaths and injuries by an average of 30 per cent. The cumulative effect on our economic bottom line will be immense. And we will not have our emergency services people cutting people from cars. We will not have our intensive-care units taken over by people in road accidents. We will not have to use rescue helicopters to take people from regional and rural roads because we will have invested properly and gotten the money into the areas where we'll do the most good.

It is appalling that this is the case that I have to report to the Senate, but I finish on this: next week is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. I encourage every senator and member in this place to publicise that day, to recognise that day and to participate by issuing media releases and doing whatever else they can do in their constituencies to elevate the concerns about road safety and elevate the solutions—and there are many solutions.