Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (12.12 pm): I rise to speak to the Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019. The changes in this bill are designed to reduce road trauma in Queensland and improve road safety. The proposed changes include: bringing forward road safety initiatives such as improvements to the interlock program; introducing a new education program for drink-driving offenders; applying an alcohol and drug testing regime; enabling the recovery of costs from responding to marine pollution incidents; and making heavy vehicle inspection fees part of the normal annual indexation process rather than requiring separate manual processes. It will also ensure that point-to-point camera enforcement applies on roads which have multiple speed limits displayed.
Given that $160 million was raised from speed camera fines in 2017-18 and that this is expected to rise to $237 million in two years, it is no wonder that many Queenslanders believe that speed cameras are a cash cow and they are not used for road safety. A practical measure would be to display cameras with a sign stating they are there for road safety measures.
The Queensland Road Safety Strategy 2015-2021 aligns with the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020. It has a vision of zero deaths and serious injuries. It has a target to reduce death and serious injury by 30 per cent by next year, 2020.
Death and serious injury on our roads costs $5 billion every year. It devastates individuals and families. Its impacts are not isolated to those families: it ripples throughout communities and the state.
There is the financial cost of health care, hospital treatment and the cost to have emergency workers attend an incident. In some cases, there is a lifelong cost of ongoing care and treatment. There is also an emotional and social cost. It costs emergency workers who have to attend traumatic events, it costs health practitioners and it costs the community in lost productivity.
In 2017, 247 people were killed and an estimated 6,462 seriously injured in road crashes in this state. Two of the most significant factors influencing road safety come back to drivers’ behaviour: speeding and drink-driving. One in five—20 per cent—of fatalities involve drink-driving. This is despite random breath testing, fines, licence disqualifications and the alcohol ignition interlock program for high-risk offenders—those who have a reading of more than .15. In the five years from 2012 to 2017, almost 25 per cent of drink-drivers involved in fatal crashes had a mid-range reading from .1 to .149.
Drivers in this group have a crash risk 20 times greater than someone who has not had a drink. This is why the interlock program will now be extended to include offenders in this group. An education program for first-time and repeat offenders will be introduced.
The other ingredient in the cocktail of risky behaviours is speeding. Speed cameras are an important tool in enforcing speed limits. It has been found that point-to-point cameras are more effective than fixed or mobile cameras in reducing speeding over longer stretches of road. At the moment, point-to-point systems can only be used where there is a single speed limit. This bill will allow them to be operated on roads with multiple speed limits.
The representation of rural and regional areas in the number of road fatalities is disproportionate to the population. Gympie is not immune. Too often our community is confronted with serious road accidents which should never have happened due to the sheer stupidity or recklessness of dumb drivers who put themselves, their passengers and other road users at risk.
In its submission the Queensland Traffic Offenders Program raised the urgent need for road safety education programs in high schools. More than a third—35 per cent—of their attendees charged with traffic offences are in the 18- to 25-years age bracket. Gympie’s not-for-profit organisation Roadcraft does a remarkable and outstanding job in reducing road trauma by educating these young drivers with practical defensive driving skills. They are taught to understand just how quickly things can go wrong due to high-risk behaviours including tailgating, drink-driving, fatigue and distraction. These courses are designed to teach vehicle control skills and techniques such as good forward observation, good steering, correct posture, low-risk driving and time and space.
Roadcraft does not just work with young drivers: it caters for drivers of all ages. In fact, the Queensland Ambulance Service sends all of their drivers to Roadcraft for training. The shadow minister for transport and main roads, the member for Chatsworth, saw firsthand the work of Roadcraft when he visited their operation with me. We met with the chief executive officer, Sharlene Makin, and the board.
Roadcraft fulfils a valuable role in making our roads safer by making drivers more aware through knowing, understanding and applying the key principles of low-risk defensive driving.
The latest reports of risky driving on rural roads is concerning. Last month the Australian Road Safety Foundation released research showing that one in three Queensland drivers admit they are more likely to undertake risky behaviour on rural roads. Even having a child in the car is not a deterrent. It said that drivers take these risks because they think they are less likely to get caught or they think there are fewer dangers.
While the main culprits on these roads are metropolitan drivers, rural drivers were worse when it comes to speeding. Across the country regional road deaths account for a staggering two in every three in the national road toll. This is despite only making up 16.5 per cent of the Australian population. The regional road toll has jumped 13.8 per cent since last August. It is a fact of life that we have to use a car to get to most places. Many Queenslanders do not have the luxury of relying on public transport services to get around. That is why it is critical to maintain our roads. That is not happening. Currently Queensland is not even maintaining what we have. We are playing catch-up.
At estimates we learnt that the maintenance backlog on state controlled roads has blown out to $5 billion. The Auditor-General says at this rate the backlog will reach over $9 billion in the next 10 years. During a committee hearing the member for Callide asked—
The Auditor-General in his report No. 4 has identified a projected $9 billion shortfall to the maintenance programs throughout the road network in Queensland and has stated that this will significantly affect safety outcomes on some of those roads. Have you taken that into account and would you care to comment on that?
The deputy director-general for customer services at the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Mike Stapleton, said—
You are asking me if the condition of the road is a factor in speed limit setting. Yes, it is a factor in speed limit setting.
I receive numerous representations from constituents concerned about the state of our roads.
Every day, local families, retirees and workers have to deal with sharing our roads with large vehicles, trucks and holiday-makers. Gympie’s roads are part of a major transport corridor to the north and south through the Bruce Highway and west on the Wide Bay Highway. With reduced government services, residents often travel long distances to access the same services and facilities that those in the south-east corner take for granted. Safety is compromised when traffic from western areas frequently backs up at Bells Bridge at the intersection of the Bruce and Wide Bay highways. Last month we had yet another incident there and the driver had to be airlifted from the site.
Making roads safe is the responsibility of both the driver and the government. One is about behaviour and the other is about delivering the best possible conditions to reduce risk. Governments need to make our road network safer so that families, children, workers and retirees can return home, and drivers need to remember that getting behind the wheel of a car is a privilege granted by the community. It is not a right but a responsibility. Road tolls are a sad reminder. They are not a record we should aim to beat. I do not oppose the bill.