Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Governments across all levels and the broader community have their part to play in making sure that we get home safely, because road safety is a shared responsibility. The Albanese government is playing its part by taking urgent steps to respond to the unacceptable rising road toll.

A major part of improving road safety is having accurate and accessible data to work from. That is why we have invested $21 million into the National Road Safety Data Hub—to provide a clear picture underpinned by data about where best to target road safety funding, which will save more lives. The Albanese government will look to improve data sharing from states for our upcoming federation funding agreement negotiations.

We will also seek to negotiate an agreement with the states and territories that will create a provision for a nationally consistent dataset. This investment of $21 million will ensure that the hub can be used effectively by everyone, including decision-makers, and will continue the work of harmonising the important data provided by states and territories.

This is the first opportunity our government has had to act on data through these intergovernmental agreements, and it comes after years of inaction by the previous coalition government. We've heard calls for more accessible and consistent national road-safety data, and we are acting. This agreement is a critical step towards making this happen.

What this is all about, at the end of the day, is saving lives—stopping deaths on our roads. The road toll is not just a series of statistics; it's the lives of people who have been taken away from their families and loved ones.

So I say again: road safety is a shared responsibility, and the Albanese Labor government is bringing all states and territories—everyone—together to share this crucial data, to make the most informed decisions, to help stop Australians being killed on our roads.