NatRoad calls for the 2025 Federal Election to focus on road safety and rest areas to reduce death and injury on our roads.
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Australian roads have seen a 27 per cent increase in the overall incident rate for heavy vehicles over 12 months.
It has been previously shown that it takes raising road standards by just one star on the AusRAP rating system to reduce deaths by 50 per cent.
By 2030, NatRoad has urged the Government to deliver on its commitment to lift 80 per cent of national highways to at least 3-stars, while pushing towards achieving 100 per cent by 2035.
NatRoad CEO Warren Clark says both Federal and State Governments needs to lift their game to save lives.
“In 2024, 1,324 lives were lost on Australian roads, and that number has been steadily rising for the last four years,” he says.
“The budget has $120 billion allocated for infrastructure improvements over the next decade, and in 2013 the cost of lifting all highways to 3-stars was estimated at just $4.7 billion. The money is there.”
To deliver a safer, more sustainable road freight industry for Australians, NatRoad has launched a national reform agenda, the ‘Road to 2028’.
NatRoad says Australia is short of at least 26,000 freight drivers, with a projected increase in road freight by 77 per cent from 2020 to 2050.
“The road freight industry is already at breaking point with a perfect storm of rising costs, escalating interest rates and increasing wages,” Clark says.
“We can’t afford to put drivers and other road users at risk with the continued underinvestment in highway infrastructure.”
The Road to 2028 covers five key outcomes to address the most pressing concerns of the road transport industry.
“There are serious challenges facing trucking operators right now, and we’ve been calling these out for some time. We can’t and won’t wait for change. We must make it happen,” he says.
“That’s why I spent considerable time in Canberra, meeting with Labor, Coalition and Independent members during the first sitting week of Parliament in February, taking them through the Road to 2028 priorities.”
Clark says the future of the transport industry is at stake.
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