Federal MP for Wannon, Dan Tehan, is calling on the Federal Labor Government to honour its pre-election promise and release road safety data that would help save lives and improve road funding in western Victoria.
There have been 282 lives lost on Victorian roads in the past 12 months, an increase of 12.8 per cent, according to the Transport Accident Commission. Mr Tehan has called on the Federal Labor Government to require the Victorian Government to publish road safety data this year in return for their share of $50 billion in federal taxpayer road funding.
Mr Tehan was the first Federal politician to back a campaign from the Australian Automobile Association called ‘Data Saves Lives.’ This campaign called for the Commonwealth to use the new National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects Agreement to compel states and territories to report existing road safety data.
“Last year, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Victorian State Government to access the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) data for Wannon which revealed that hundreds of kilometres of roads through our local communities had received the lowest safety rating,” Mr Tehan said.
“If this data was publicly available it would significantly help to reduce death, trauma and traffic congestion on our roads because all governments would be accountable for making informed decisions about road funding, instead of ad-hoc and potentially politically motivated decisions.
“Since I was elected, I have been campaigning for more funding to improve our local roads. The AusRAP data confirmed that Wannon has been ignored by the state Labor Government. That’s putting lives at risk.
“Before the 2022 election, the Labor MP for Ballarat, Catherine King, who is now the Transport Minister, made a commitment to make this data available. On behalf of all the residents of Wannon, I am calling on Federal Labor to honour that promise and make this data available because one death on our roads is one too many.”
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