FLEET VEHICLES

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:39): Sir, I have a supplementary question. Does the Rann government contribute by using its purchasing power to drive five-star ratings?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:40): When we talk about ratings, we look at things such as electronic stability control, and we support in principle the fitting of electronic stability control and side curtain airbags into all new vehicles as a proven safety message. We certainly agree that adopting ESC should involve a nationally consistent approach.

The Chair of the Road Safety Advisory Council, Sir Eric Neal, and I, as the Minister for Road Safety, have written to car manufacturers to encourage them to install ESC as a standard feature. The Road Safety Advisory Council, in particular, supports ESC technology and side curtain airbags as vehicle features because they have great potential to reduce road trauma.

I advise the chamber that, at a departmental level, the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure implemented a fleet leasing policy on 1 April this year. The aim of the policy is to enable a more rigorous safety focus approach to light vehicle leasing across the department's light vehicle fleet. The application of the policy is about improving the safety of the departmental fleet, but it is also acting as a strategic approach to improving the safety of the entire private vehicle fleet, and we as a government are progressing fleet policy with respect to safety rating—the electronic stability control that we are talking about and the front airbags—with a view to extending it to all government fleet cars. I suggest that we watch this space.