RAIL SAFETY (SAFETY COORDINATION) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 22 March 2011.)

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (16:12): I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak to the Rail Safety (Safety Coordination) Amendment Bill 2011 and indicate that the opposition will be supporting this bill. The railway level crossings are the single biggest source of death and injury associated with railway operations. The occurrence of such crashes between road vehicles and trains is a serious area of concern.

The opposition supports this move to align our legislation with the national model, implementing the effective joint management of level crossings by rail infrastructure managers and all levels of road management authorities. This bill will ensure that road and rail authorities work together to reach agreements on their responsibilities, particularly in determining the safety risks, implementing safety risk management strategies, and arrangements for maintenance and upgrade of existing level crossings.

I acknowledge that there has been some recent federal government assistance to the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure in achieving rail crossing upgrades. It must be acknowledged that the agreements to be achieved for this legislation will be largely redundant without financial support to back them.

I echo the concerns of my colleague the member for Stuart in saying that this government must recognise that tragedies arising from rail crossings are not limited to built up and urban areas, and there are some very remote ones we need to focus on, too. I am reminded of a tragedy in my own community. I suggest it would have been in the late 1970s or 1980s. A young man, who had only been married about two years (in fact, he and his wife had a small baby), was driving along parallel with the Mount Gambier railway line in his tractor.

Everybody thinks that he must have been listening to the radio in the tractor. He was somewhat ahead of the Bluebird as it was going back to Mount Gambier and he came straight out in front of it and was tragically killed, leaving his son without a father and, sadly, his wife without a husband. It was one of those country railway crossings, as I am sure you are familiar with, Mr President, where there are no safety precautions whatsoever.

He had probably been over that hundreds of times in his life, but not been there at the same time as a train. Sadly, on this occasion he was. In the minister's second reading explanation he stated that there were approximately 100 crashes between road vehicles and trains in Australia each year and that South Australia averaged about 10 per year. In the past, we have generally had management of level crossings done by government-owned railway authorities, and there are some informal arrangements in place with road authorities for shared management.

With the privatisation of railways throughout the 1990s, many of these informal arrangements have been challenged. Since that time, there have been a number of tragedies, such as the one I spoke of, and also one in 2007 at Kerang, one of the most notable incidents, where 11 people tragically lost their lives when a truck collided with a V/Line train. The scene was disastrous and tragic for that regional community.

Apart from the provision of the interface agreements on level crossings, the bill also appoints a rail safety regulator, which is, if you like, a neutral umpire with the ability to restore an outcome if agreement cannot be reached. The minister will nominate a person if the need arises, and that person will be able to provide an impartial determination. This legislation should be passed swiftly. There are a number of players in the rail operation now, and the mechanisms for safety arrangements must happen quickly. I indicate that the opposition is very happy to support the bill.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises) (16:16): I understand that second reading contributions have been completed, so on behalf of my ministerial colleagues I would like to thank all honourable members for their contribution to this very important bill. Any outstanding questions or queries will be dealt with during the committee stage. I commend the bill to the council and look forward to the committee stage being dealt with expeditiously.

Bill read a second time.