The Government has announced a boost to road safety funding for Local Governments will be include in next Tuesday Budget. In total the Morrison Government will deliver an additional $2.2 billion for road safety over the coming ten years. The announcement will include:
- An additional $1.1 billion in funding for local governments under the Roads to Recovery program, which allows investment in road safety infrastructure in regional Australia.
- An extra $550 million for the successful Black Spot Program, which targets known high‐risk locations and reduces serious crashes by 30 per cent, on average.
- A further $571.1 million to improve the safety and efficiency of heavy vehicle operations through the Bridges Renewal Program, Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiatives (HVSI).
A new Office of Road Safety will also be established to provide a national point for collaboration and leadership on key road safety priorities. The Office of Road Safety will work closely with states, territories, local government and key road safety stakeholders.
The measures also include a new $12 million Road Safety Innovation Fund to support research and development in priority areas such as regional road safety, driver distraction from mobile devices, protecting vulnerable road users and reducing drug driving.
The additional funding announced today builds on the Australian Government’s current investment of around $2.6 billion in safety‐enhancing projects, bringing the total investment to $3.1 billion per year over the period 2019–20 to 2022–23.
ALGA is working with the Deputy Prime Ministers Office to break down as much as possible what this announcement means for individual councils.