Federal Labor undertakes to work with the Coalition Government in a spirit of bipartisanship to address the findings of the inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020, which was delivered today.
This important report, produced by a panel of experts, argues that Australia’s road safety performance has stalled in recent years.
It calls for a greater focus on road safety to save lives and reduce the economic cost of road trauma.
The report says:

The scale of the personal and financial cost of road trauma is unacceptable, and current actions and investments are not achieving the desired results.

Australia needs a dramatic change in road safety management, given the national road injury epidemic and the enormous economic cost from road crashes.

Failing to improve our current situation will result in 12,000 people killed and 360,000 injured at a cost of $300 billion by 2030 alone.”

Labor will review the report’s key findings and work with the Federal Government, the States, law enforcement, motoring organisations and other relevant stakeholders on the important task of improving Australia’s road safety performance.
Over the past ten years, there have been 14,525 road fatalities in Australia, including 1226 road deaths in 2017 and 665 so far in 2018.
With the report placing the annual economic cost of road crashes in Australia at $30 billion, and the effect that fatalities have on families and communities who have lost loved ones through vehicle accidents, we must lift our game.