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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-21 Daily Xml
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Country Road Speed Limits

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Road Safety. Can the minister advise whether the lowering of speed limits on all country roads to 100 km/h has had the desired effect? With your leave, and that of the house, I will explain just a little bit further.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: On Monday, in The Advertiser it was revealed that a new road safety campaign focused on country roads would be launched because the road toll remains proportionately higher in the country because, arguably, the lowering of speed limits has not worked.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (15:17): I thank the member for Narungga for the question. As we know, everyone's got a duty to do the right thing on our roads. Of course, any life lost on our roads is an absolute tragedy and travesty and we need to do everything we can to try to avoid this carnage on our roads. Road safety obviously involves a whole range of factors. That's why we work very hard on this side of the chamber. I know my colleague the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport is helping to spend, on behalf of the people of South Australia, literally billions of dollars in this state, across the forward estimates, improving the road and also the rail safety network.

Of course, it's not just about infrastructure. It is also about people's attitudes, and that's why we also spend millions of dollars in this state working with South Australia Police, working with DIT, making sure that we continue to drive down those lives lost and serious injuries on our roads through very targeted campaigns, making sure that we bring these things to people's attention, making sure we continue to support our agencies in tackling what are the fatal five causes of death and injury on our roads. They are things like speed, things like distraction, things like drink-driving and drug driving. Then, of course—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Yes, the member for Chaffey reminds me of a very successful campaign recently. The first word is 'selfish', and I won't refer to the second word in this chamber. Making sure that we target people's attitudes is very, very important to bring about better road safety behaviour.

Then you also have legislation, and on this side of the house—whilst there are certain bills that are before the house, I will talk very briefly—we are tackling things like extreme speed, things like excessive speed, making sure we continue to deter people from engaging in dangerous conduct on our roads.

Of course, there are also speed limits, which are a factor. The article in the paper this week did point out that, although about 30 per cent of people reside in country areas in this state, this year over 70 per cent of lives lost have occurred in the country, in areas like the Barossa, like the South-East, like in the member for Narungga's electorate.

It is very complex and not necessarily accurate to say that, because of one particular treatment and one particular area, it is attributable to some of the broader causes of crashes and fatalities across our state. It really is an area where we need to work collectively across a whole range of these issues—infrastructure, speed limits, attitudinal behaviours—and also do everything we can to work with those specific areas with our agencies, with police, with the Department for Transport, to continue to reduce lives lost on our roads.

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