Transcript: Remarks at ANCAP Safety Display Warehouse, Canberra
Subjects: ANCAP funding announcement; road safety
E&OE
James Goodwin, CEO of ANCAP:
Good morning, everybody. This morning we’re at the ANCAP safety ‘shed’. This is what we call our library of vehicles, our crashed vehicles. I’d like to introduce the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack to make a few comments this morning and then I’ll respond to that afterwards.
Michael McCormack:
Thank you very much, James. What a powerful advocate he is for not only consumers’ rights but also for, indeed road, safety.
And of course, this week is Road Safety Week across the nation. So pleasing to see so many cities lighting up their state, the national icons in the bright colours of yellow, and yellow, of course, is a significant colour. It represents the SARAH Group, it represents the young lady by the name of Sarah Frazer, the daughter of Peter who is such a powerful road safety advocate.
Sarah was just 23 when she was travelling to university, Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, when she sadly lost her life on the Hume Highway. Also Geoff Clarke, the tow truck driver who went to her aid also lost his life; and Peter Frazer, her dad, has been an absolute, absolute advocate, a powerful voice for road safety, attending conferences throughout Australia, indeed the world, ever since.
Road safety is – and should be – something every time we get behind a vehicle, it should be on our minds.
Don’t text and drive. Don’t speed. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t take your eye off the road for a moment. It’s so, so critical.
That’s why the Australian Government is pleased to partner with the Australasian New Car Assessment Program and James and his team today to announce five years of further funding.
$6.64 million to help this important organisation continue to do the work they do to make sure consumers have the right information. To make sure, indeed, manufacturers have the right information. The assessments and the tests on vehicles that ANCAP does goes a long way to making sure our roads are safer.
And I know that this money is going to be welcomed, I know more importantly it’s going to be put to good use.
ANCAP does a powerful job to make sure that our roads are safer, to make sure, indeed, our vehicles are safer, and so that is why the Federal Government are partners with ANCAP, partners with everything they do and encourages their work.
Our $6.64 million will go a long way to providing the sort of funding necessary to ensure that ANCAP continues its powerful work. I might get James to say a few more comments.
And well done. You deserve it, great.
[Applause]
James Goodwin:
Well, thank you Deputy Prime Minister. It’s certainly a very important announcement and a very significant boost to our funding.
What this means is that we can plan for the long term. Our testing and assessment program is changing and evolving. The future now is automation and we can move to the testing of those automated technologies to ensure that we are keeping the manufacturers on their toes and that consumers are getting the safest cars possible.
We really are a consumer tool. We’re empowering consumers with information about how safe their vehicles are. So the changing test protocol and this funding boost enables us to keep that pressure on the vehicle brands.
We really need to make sure that Australians and New Zealanders are not missing out on any of the important safety features that will keep them safe on the roads.
Advocacy is also an important job. We need to educate people about that new technology, how to use it, and when they might be using it, so that’s also an important function that we have. So that’s an important role that we have and I appreciate your interest, and I know you Michael take a personal interest in road safety and in vehicle safety.
Too often, the younger drivers are in those vulnerable vehicles, the oldest vehicles on the roads, so we have an important job to do to raise awareness about that as well. So safety isn’t a luxury, and it shouldn’t be a luxury, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
We’re trying to give car manufacturers a rulebook so that they know what sort of technology to introduce, and in turn, that means we’ll get the safest vehicles on the roads. So thank you to the Australian Government and thank you Deputy Prime Minister.
Michael McCormack:
Can I also say I really appreciate all the media does too to get the message out there about the importance of road safety, about the important work ANCAP does, has done in the past since 1993, and will continue to do in the future.
Well done.
[Applause]
[ENDS]
Media contact: Dom Hopkinson – 0409 421 209