DATA AGREEMENT WELCOMED TO IMPROVE ROAD SAFETY OUTCOMES

Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Tony Pasin MP has welcomed news that the five-year Federation Funding Agreement for Land Transport Infrastructure now includes the requirement for all jurisdictions to report crucial road safety data.

Mr Pasin congratulated the States and Territories on their commitment to provide the data necessary to quantifying Australia’s road safety problem and develop evidence-based responses as well as evaluate their effectiveness.

“The former Coalition Government was committed to establishing a data sharing agreement to improve road safety but unfortunately, the Albanese Labor Government has been kicking the can down the road on the issue for over two years now while Australians have watched the road toll rise,” Mr Pasin said.

The annual fatality rate per 100,000 of population now sits at 4.7, well over double the National Road Safety target of 2.0.

Mr Pasin said it was incredibly important to ensure that road safety initiatives, and the taxpayers dollars attached to them, are being directed where needed.

“The numbers don’t lie. The road toll is completely unacceptable, and it tells us that road safety efforts are not achieving the intended outcome and something needs to change.”

“The only way to measure the effectiveness of road safety policies is to have a co-ordinated, national approach to the collection and publication of data.”

“I’m optimistic that if this data can be coordinated in the correct way and published in a timely manner, we can target road safety efforts in the right direction,” Mr Pasin said.

Mr Pasin congratulated the Australian Automobile Association the nation’s motoring clubs, and 18 national organisations representing motorists, motorcyclists, truckers, pedestrians, doctors, insurers, road engineers and safety advocates who joined the Coalition in calling for the data sharing agreement.