ROAD SAFETY STRATEGY

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:37): I would like to speak on the government's road safety strategy, which has been out and about in the media over the last couple of weeks and received a lot of attention, particularly in the regions of South Australia, but it is not the right sort of attention that the government might have wanted to receive. In fact, the new strategy has been roundly criticised, particularly in regional areas, because the strategy proposes that speed limits on our highways be reduced from 110 km/h to 100 km/h.

The state's peak motoring body, the RAA, has also criticised the strategy for this reason and for the lack of serious funding commitment to improved infrastructure. The RAA says we need to make our country roads safer, not slower, and I believe regional South Australians could not agree more.

The RAA says the latest research by the Centre for Automotive Safety Research shows that serious injuries and fatalities can be reduced by 50 per cent through safer roads and improving infrastructure—50 per cent; that is a solid number, yet we see that this government is responsible for a $200 million backlog in road maintenance and continues to ignore it.

We see this government releasing a shiny new road safety strategy that acknowledges the need for safer roads and improved infrastructure, but we do not see a funding commitment that would achieve it. Instead, we are seeing reduced speed limits on our country and regional roads.

This was tried in New South Wales, by a Labor government, on the Newell Highway, a couple of years ago and the result was a resounding failure. The speed limit was reduced to 100 km/h and this increased congestion because cars were unable to overtake heavy vehicles travelling at a similar speed. The frustration caused by this congestion led to unsafe driving practices and the reduced speed limit also led to increased travelling times between regional centres—an obvious contributor to fatigue. I am sure that the Speaker of this house would agree that travelling long distances on country roads, with slower speed limits, will increase time, frustration and, again, fatigue.

The government needs to commit to funding to improved infrastructure which will produce the outcome we are all looking for. The government needs to address the $200 million backlog, and the Minister for Road Safety's complaint that the state cannot afford it, as he said on Riverland radio last week, just shows that his priorities are wrong.

The strategy also calls for increased fines, but this is just a blatant, naked revenue grab by a government whose spending seems to be on the take 24 hours a day. The RAA says that South Australia's penalties for low-level speeding are almost amongst the highest in the country, and that there is no evidence that fines will assist in reducing the road toll.

I am also disappointed that that there is very little mention of driver education in this strategy, particularly for our young. Let's get serious about mandating advanced driving courses in South Australia, particularly for our younger drivers, and providing the facilities for these courses. I would like to note that the proposed Riverland motorsport complex and driver education facility at Barmera is a prime example of what should be achieved for educating our young drivers.

We need to equip drivers with the skills to meet the challenges of driving on our roads rather than further regulating and fining them, and I think a prime example of that is that the younger drivers are predominantly vulnerable drivers; they need to be educated.