Ms CARNEY - 2005-10-12
In 2004-05, $10.2m was budgeted for road safety services, yet last year’s spending dropped to $8.7m. In the 2005-06 budget, funding was cut from the previous year to $9.2m. Income from speed cameras has increased, yet the carnage on our roads continues. You said on ABC radio on 6 October: ‘Road deaths are, you know, so pointless, they are so damaging to our community and you look at the grief it causes friends and families, and we really have to stop it’. If you do really care about this issue, why have you cut funding to road safety services, and will you take up the CLP’s proposal to establish a task force comprising community representatives, road safety experts and others to examine all of the evidence and provide some strategies to government aimed at reducing our road toll?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, like the Leader of the Opposition and every member of this House, I am extremely concerned by the number of fatalities on our roads. As of 10 October, 43 people have died on our roads this year. We should all be concerned. When you look at a breakdown of what has happened, there have been a significant number of those fatalities where those who have died have not been wearing seatbelts. I cannot say definitively whether there is a particular relationship between that and the death, but one imagines there is. We have some specific tasks to do about reducing fatalities on our roads. As a parent of two children, looking at some of those who die on our roads, it is just a horrifying thought for any parent that you should lose a child on the road, or for anyone to lose a friend in an accident on the road.
We have some specific challenges. The first one – and we have already moved on that a couple of weeks ago – is to really target the wearing of seatbelts. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport released a new campaign targeting the wearing of seatbelts, and that is currently on the electronic media. We have had the police with a road blitz, enforcing the wearing of seatbelts, checking speeding traffic, and giving a new focus to random breath testing. We are certainly tackling the elements that are going towards those fatalities on our roads.
Regarding the issue raised by the Opposition Leader about reducing the funds going to road safety, I do not think that is the case. However, I do not have the figures with me. We have made no decision to reduce funding to road safety. I suspect part of that might have been the change to DTAL, perhaps. I am just speculating here, that DTAL, driver education, is now funded through DEET. I will get those figures for you. I am fairly confident to say that we have not reduced our effort in road safety. The police are very conscious of taking a particular focus on those elements that we have identified as being part of the current unacceptable level of road fatality.
One death is far too much. We can identify where the problem is and we will be focusing on that. I say to all Territorians, to parents, to those who drive: ‘Be careful, do not take our roads for granted. Talk to your children and friends about being careful’. Much of it is about being careful; do not chance it on the roads. We do not want to see accidents and fatalities.
The police have responded. We have targeted campaigns for seatbelt wearing, for speeding on the roads and for random breath testing. We will keep it up, and we will ensure that we can get those unacceptable levels down. I would love to come in here and say ‘zero’.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, like the Leader of the Opposition and every member of this House, I am extremely concerned by the number of fatalities on our roads. As of 10 October, 43 people have died on our roads this year. We should all be concerned. When you look at a breakdown of what has happened, there have been a significant number of those fatalities where those who have died have not been wearing seatbelts. I cannot say definitively whether there is a particular relationship between that and the death, but one imagines there is. We have some specific tasks to do about reducing fatalities on our roads. As a parent of two children, looking at some of those who die on our roads, it is just a horrifying thought for any parent that you should lose a child on the road, or for anyone to lose a friend in an accident on the road.
We have some specific challenges. The first one – and we have already moved on that a couple of weeks ago – is to really target the wearing of seatbelts. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport released a new campaign targeting the wearing of seatbelts, and that is currently on the electronic media. We have had the police with a road blitz, enforcing the wearing of seatbelts, checking speeding traffic, and giving a new focus to random breath testing. We are certainly tackling the elements that are going towards those fatalities on our roads.
Regarding the issue raised by the Opposition Leader about reducing the funds going to road safety, I do not think that is the case. However, I do not have the figures with me. We have made no decision to reduce funding to road safety. I suspect part of that might have been the change to DTAL, perhaps. I am just speculating here, that DTAL, driver education, is now funded through DEET. I will get those figures for you. I am fairly confident to say that we have not reduced our effort in road safety. The police are very conscious of taking a particular focus on those elements that we have identified as being part of the current unacceptable level of road fatality.
One death is far too much. We can identify where the problem is and we will be focusing on that. I say to all Territorians, to parents, to those who drive: ‘Be careful, do not take our roads for granted. Talk to your children and friends about being careful’. Much of it is about being careful; do not chance it on the roads. We do not want to see accidents and fatalities.
The police have responded. We have targeted campaigns for seatbelt wearing, for speeding on the roads and for random breath testing. We will keep it up, and we will ensure that we can get those unacceptable levels down. I would love to come in here and say ‘zero’.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016