Transcript - doorstop, Road Safety Ministers Meeting, Sydney

E&OE

ANTHONY CHISHOLM [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: It’s great to be here in New South Wales, in Sydney today, with John Graham, the Minister for Roads; Jenny Aitchison, the Minister for Regional Roads; and also, Bernard Carlon as well who’s the Head of the Centre for Road Safety. We’ve just wrapped up the road safety minister’s meeting, and we know that road safety is such an important issue. We've seen an increase in the number of people who are dying on our roads, and we all want to work constructively to ensure that we're doing our bit at the federal level, working with states and territories, to ensure that the money we're investing in road safety is making a difference. I'm pleased today to be here with my colleagues from New South Wales to also announce that we've signed a deal for stages two and three of the Road Safety Program that is going to see $437 million spent across New South Wales on 230 projects to improve road safety. This is right across the state. This is going to be focused on measures and improvements that are going to make a difference to improve road safety in this state, and ensure that less people are injured on our roads. This collaboration is what it's all about, working constructively with our states and territories, ensuring that the money that we are spending is going to make a difference. And I thank the Minister John Graham and Minister Jenny Aitchison for their contribution and work on this as well, so I'll hand over to Minister Graham first of all. 

JOHN GRAHAM [NSW MINISTER FOR ROADS]: Thanks and welcome to Senator Anthony Chisholm on behalf of the Commonwealth. It's been a delight here in New South Wales to welcome Anthony, also to welcome ministers from around the country for some important discussions about how we can tackle the road toll, not just in New South Wales, but around the country. It's really highlighted the challenge this morning as we've sat down to talk about where the road toll is up to. We are sitting here today at 308 fatalities over this year, 10 higher than last year. And, as we talked about those road toll figures around the country in today’s meeting, it was a really confronting discussion. We know we need to do more and today's meeting has been of real assistance to do that. This funding will be of huge help. This Program will touch all of New South Wales. Community by community, this is $437 million for underwritten projects that will make a real practical difference to road safety. We're really dealing with this road safety challenge intersection by intersection, roundabout by roundabout, road by road, right across the state. That's what this money will allow us to do. It's a hugely practical intervention, it's driven by data, and it really will save lives across our state. That's good news, particularly as people's thoughts turn to the holiday period. We know it's a dangerous time on our roads, we know we're asking people to drive safely, but this investment from the Commonwealth and the state working together, over time, will make a huge difference to the safety of our roads. Jenny.

JENNY AITCHISON [NSW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL TRANSPORT & ROADS]: Thanks. It's great to be here for this announcement of significant funding. $262 million will actually go into regional New South Wales, about 60 per cent, of this round two and round three funding. We know that this is important for regional communities. This will go on to highways like the Great Western Highway, the Kidman, the Newell, and it will be doing things like kerb replacement; better pavements, non-slip; having the barriers there to enable people to stay within lanes and to minimise the risk of head on collisions. We know that our road toll in regional New South Wales is two thirds of the state's deaths on our roads, even though we account for only one third of the population. So, it's really important to have this investment in our road network to ensure that safety is always the highest priority when we're doing road maintenance and road repairs. These upgrades will really significantly reduce the road toll in regional New South Wales, $262 million and over a quarter of $1 billion in these two funding rounds for regional New South Wales is a real win. I also want to thank Senator Anthony Chisholm, the Assistant Minister, for convening the roundtable, the collaboration for regional New South Wales on roads issues is really important with our counterparts across the nation, particularly in those more regional remote locations like Northern Territory, WA, where we've been able to share some really important learnings, particularly about things like average speed cameras, which we rolled out this year - that's been a really important ability to do. So, thank you for being here and thanks for the collaboration. 

BERNARD CARLON: Bernard Carlon, Centre for Road Safety Transport for New South Wales. With 308 lives lost on our roads so far this year, its important to remember the tragic consequences that has for families that reverberates among the community, in workplaces. So this announcement today will make a real difference to saving lives and reducing serious injuries on our roads. More than 10,000 people in the last year have been seriously injured on our roads. We know that these sorts of projects actually reduce the number of people who are killed and are seriously injured by 44 per cent. So, this investment will save lives, it will reduce the amount of trauma on our roads. And so, across the whole of New South Wales, whether it be audio tactile to help people return to their lane if they're fatigued, whether it be barriers on the side of the road if they happen to lose control, we know all of these will make a big difference. Even in urban areas, the changes to our traffic signals have been invested in to make those intersections safer. We know it significantly reduced crashes and will reduce the number of seriously injured and killed people, and reduce the impact and burden on those families and communities right across New South Wales.

JOURNALIST: That’s great. Could you give some practical examples of what these funds will be used for?

GRAHAM: Yeah. Look, as Bernard was saying, these really will go to things that make a big difference to drivers as they move around the state. It's those things like rumble strips, like better road fencing as you come around a corner. You'll see some of the wire rope or some of the flexible roadside barriers that literally stop cars hitting each other or running off the road. These are very practical interventions; the sort of things that drivers will often notice as they're on a long trip. We're rolling those out right around the state, and we're rolling them out in the places we know it'll make a difference. 

JOURNALIST: Just on the Warringah Freeway upgrade, the Alfred Street off-ramp is going to be closed for over two years. How concerned are you about the flow-on effect for other local roads around that area?

GRAHAM: Well, firstly, this is a big project. It's a project that was started by the former government and we're continuing with it. It's a big project in one of the most constrained corridors in the state. There's major traffic running through this, every day, in and out of the city. So, there's no easy way to do this work. What we're keen to do is do it as quickly as possible to minimise the impact, particularly on nearby residents. This is one of those changes, as part of this overall plan, which has been in place for a long time. This is one of those changes that will allow us to do the work quickly, do it with minimal disruption. But I really want to thank residents and drivers. This has been a highly disruptive project in our city, but it's going to make a huge difference to the way people move around our roads in the long term.

JOURNALIST: While it's closed the only alternative exit is at Military Road, which is tolled. Why won't that off ramp be made free while the other off ramps are closed?

GRAHAM: Yeah, we're still talking to the community about these issues as these changes come into place. But I know this is having an impact on people. There's no easy way to upgrade a road like this. It is having an impact both on local residents and people moving through this area.

JOURNALIST: Is it fair drivers have to pay for tolls while this ramp is closed?

GRAHAM: Yeah, we know that people have to change their traffic patterns. We're consulting with the local community. We're open to people's views.

JOURNALIST: So, it could potentially be a free?

GRAHAM: That isn't what we're saying at the moment. We're making these changes to the road network to get this project done, and that's been the feedback from the community. They know that these big projects are having an impact on their lives. It is inconvenient, there's no getting around that. But it is making a big difference to Sydney, to New South Wales, as we get these projects done and that's what we want to do here.

JOURNALIST: Great, thank you.

CHISHOLM: Thanks everyone.