address to parliament - PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS - Black Spot Program

At the outset, may I mourn your loss, Member for Lyons. I know your dad died about three years before you were elected to this place. He would be very proud of you, Brian. He would. Any loss on our roads is one too many. For the member for Lyons's father and the many hundreds of people who lose their lives on our roads every year, it is a tragedy. It is a tragedy not just for those families but for our nation. The economic loss is just massive, but the ripple effect of emotions that it causes cannot ever be understated. Nine News Sydney, X-ing today—or tweeting, if you like—said: 'Police are cracking down on reckless drivers, launching a blitz on Sydney roads after two recent crashes claimed young lives. More than 200 people have died this year on New South Wales roads, up 33 per cent from last year.'

I know for a fact that there was another police chase through the streets of Sydney today for 90 minutes. Police had to go up on kerbs to try to get them. No black spot funding is going to stop that. This is just reckless. This is just wrong, and those people—often they are young people—ought to know better. The member for Indi is right: Wagga Wagga and Lake Cargelligo are mourning the loss of four people who were killed at Chiltern just the other day. Wagga Wagga residents Trevor and Lorraine Breen and Noel and Kerry Capes lost their lives when their car and a truck collided on the Hume Highway just south of Wodonga last Thursday. Lachlan Shire Council deputy mayor Paul Phillips knew all four. He said that Trevor and Kerry were siblings. How must that family be feeling tonight? I know the community of Lake Cargelligo—tiny as it is—in the seat of Parkes is absolutely feeling the impact of that tragedy, as are Wagga Wagga and the people whose lives they played such a part in.

This motion, brought to the House by the member for Barker, speaks to the fact that black spot funding investment needs to happen. It is bipartisan. It needs to always be preserved and protected in the budget. Indeed, as the minister, I was proud to ensure that we did everything we could and that every piece of road infrastructure investment was looked at through the lens of saving lives. I messaged Brian Monaghan, the mayor of Bland Shire Council, just before I got my feet. There are 3,200 kilometres in the road network in Bland shire, 2,800 kilometres of which are unsealed. It's second only in the state to the neighbouring local government area of Lachlan, whose deputy mayor I just referenced. These are huge road networks and, sadly, because of recent weather events and all the rest, their roads are riddled with potholes. I drive around my very, very large electorate—I know other regional members do the same—and the roads are in a terrible state. They are. I'm sure they are in your electorate, too, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker Sharkie. We need to do everything we can; indeed, we need to do more. It does bother me that infrastructure projects and programs have been put on hold. We need to make sure that the investment continues, particularly, as many regional members have stated, for our country roads, because rural people and remote people are overrepresented in the road toll statistics.

I know, when it comes to these sorts of debates, that there are various notes that suggest that we're increasing the number of crashes and that the percentages increase. We need to work towards zero. That's the ultimate goal. It doesn't matter whether you are in Manangatang or Melbourne, the fact is we need to address this issue. We need to address the behaviour of people when they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. We need to make sure that we can reduce these crashes such that we don't have any victims on our road. Again, as I said at the outset, I mourn with the member for Lyons. We need to make sure that nobody dies on our roads.