SA ROAD SAFETY ACTION PLAN MISSING DATA TRANSPERANCY

Member for Barker and Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Tony Pasin MP has criticised the South Australian Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2025, released this week by the Malinauskas Government, for failing to include data sharing in the Plan.

Mr Pasin said the need to collect and openly publish data is paramount to informing policy, and guiding infrastructure investment decisions.

“The former Coalition Government committed to establishing a national data sharing agreement with States and Territories,” Mr Pasin said.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that Labor Government’s at both a State and Federal level appear to be backing away from that approach.”

“Publishing road safety data is critical to improving road safety in this country,” Mr Pasin said.

Mr Pasin together with the nation’s peak motoring body the Australian Automobile Association I have been calling for a coordinated national approach to road safety data collection and reporting.

“1,187 lives were lost on Australian roads in 2022, an increase of 5.1% on the previous year.  We need evidenced based road safety policy and we can’t do that without transparency around road safety data,” Mr Pasin said.

Mr Pasin said that while the South Australian Road Safety Action Plan acknowledges the importance of data to evaluate policy, it makes no commitment to make the collected data public or share it with the Commonwealth.

“If we are to move towards achieving ‘vision zero’ – that is zero deaths or serious injuries on our road network by 2050 under the National Road Safety Strategy, we need road safety data shared,” Mr Pasin said.

SA Shadow Minister for Road Safety, Vincent Tarzia, slammed the Malinauskas Labor Government for its apparent casual attitude toward road safety following a horrific two months on SA roads.

“Peter Malinauskas should be ashamed for banishing the Road Safety Action Plan to the back seat causing a year-long delay – and only releasing the crucial initiative following pressure from the SA Liberal Party about its status,” Mr Tarzia said.

“We’ve had a tragic and horrific start to 2023 in respect to lives lost and serious injuries on our roads and the safety of motorists and riders should be a higher priority for Peter Malinauskas.

“So far there have been five P-plater lives lost – the highest number at this time in the past four years – and we are renewing our calls for a targeted road safety campaign driven through social media to help save young lives.”

Media Contact: Charlotte Edmunds 8724 7730