Road Safety

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Road Safety. Can the minister tell the house—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Gazzola has the floor.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA: My question is to the Minister for Road Safety. Can the minister tell the house about the Australasian New Car Assessment Program Board being in Adelaide this week and why Adelaide is a national leader in the testing of pedestrian safety in new cars?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:10): I would like to thank the Hon. Mr Gazzola for his really important question when it comes to road safety in the state of South Australia. Today is a significant day in the context of road safety policy in our great state because at the moment we have the ANCAP Board in Adelaide this week for their board meeting.

ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) is a national body. The ANCAP Board is charged with the responsibility of testing all cars that come on the Australasian market with the view to being able to provide South Australian and Australian consumers generally with an easy to understand measure of the relative safety of cars that go onto Australian roads. What is unique about them being here today, of course, is that South Australia provides an incredibly important component of ANCAP's ability to be able to measure the safety of cars that come onto the Australasian market.

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to be with members of the ANCAP Board and I will be joining them later this evening as well, in conjunction with members of the Motor Accident Commission, to attend the Centre for Automotive Safety Research lab in Kent Town with their Director, Mr Jeremy Woolley.

For those of you who may not be aware, right here in South Australia, CASR puts themselves at the very epicentre of road safety research, not only in terms of being able to make a contribution to road safety policy but also road safety ratings for ANCAP because right here in Adelaide at Kent Town there is a facility where every single car that comes onto the Australasian market has to be tested for its safety around pedestrian incidents.

In order for ANCAP to be able to formulate their rating, they commit a component of their rating system towards the safety of pedestrians who may be involved in an accident of some description. The facilities at Kent Town are cutting edge and it is something that the whole South Australian community can be very proud of, particularly the fact that CASR, a South Australian university-orientated organisation, makes such a significant contribution.

ANCAP has published crash test results for more than 570 passenger and light commercial vehicles sold in Australia and New Zealand. The safety rating is between one and five stars, indicating the level of safety they provide in the event of a crash. These days, five-star-rated cars are available at the more affordable end of the market in comparison to what was the case, so buying a safe car does not necessarily mean stretching your budget. I heard the chairman of ANCAP explain this morning that there are now technologies available in low-end priced cars, that is, cars that are between the $15,000 and $20,000 price range, that were once only available in cars that were in excess of $100,000.

At the moment, it is a really important time of the year when it comes to car purchases. As we are leading up to the end of the financial year, we do see a spike in the number of people who purchase cars during end of financial year sales and the like. What we are calling for, as a government today and generally, is to ask South Australian consumers to factor in the ANCAP safety rating when they go about making a decision of what type of car they want to buy because the difference between a three-star car and a four-star car or between a four and a five-star car may end up being the question of whether or not you save your life or the lives of others on South Australian roads.

I would like to applaud the incredible work of CASR in their research, and their commitment to providing information to car manufactures, consumers and the government more generally when formulating road safety research. I also want to pay particular recognition to ANCAP. They are very welcome in Adelaide at the moment. We applaud them for their ongoing work, and we thank them very much for their close working relationship with South Australian researchers in formulating their ANCAP safety ratings, which are so useful to consumers right across Australia and New Zealand.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Hood.