❓ The Minister for Police provides an update on the Wheatbelt Highway Safety Review, highlighting its progress, stakeholder involvement, and community engagement. The review aims to address the high rate of road trauma in the Wheatbelt region.
AnsweredQoN 595Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WHEATBELT HIGHWAY SAFETY REVIEW
595. Mr T.K. WALDRON to the
Minister for Police:
Can the minister please update the house on the progress of
the wheatbelt highway safety review?
595. Mr T.K. WALDRON to the
Minister for Police:
Can the minister please update the house on the progress of
the wheatbelt highway safety review?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Wagin for his
question on wheatbelt road safety, and I also acknowledge his strong advocacy
for his community in the road safety space. I appreciate and acknowledge his
continued effort in this area.
A few months ago I initiated a
wheatbelt highway safety review, the first of its kind to be conducted in
Western Australia. The review was based on a successful model that had been
trialled in New South Wales, where they were trying to get to the crux of the
problem on particular patches of road where the road safety outcomes were
particularly poor. As the member is no doubt well aware, people living in or
driving through the wheatbelt are seven times more likely to be victims of road
trauma as people in metropolitan Perth. That statistic is not acceptable, and
that is why we have undertaken this wheatbelt highway safety review. All the
stakeholders in road safety are involved in this—Main Roads, police
from the major crash unit, the Office of the State Coroner, the Insurance
Commission of Western Australia, the Office of Road Safety and our new Road Safety
Commission. They have examined a large number of crashes across the wheatbelt
between 2009 and 2013. They have had a look at the causes of those crashes. The
second stage of this review was to take that crash analysis and do a road trip.
Those experts have driven along 370 kilometres of the Great Eastern Highway and
the Great Southern Highway to examine where the crashes occurred and to try to
understand what happened in those circumstances. We also opened an online
portal through the Road Safety Commission website. Over 350 people from the
local community have nominated bad patches of road and areas where they would
like to see a focus on improved road safety. Obviously, we know where the
crashes occur, and we can log and record those.
Mr
M.P. Murray : Are you going to spend some money to fix it up? You're
sitting on a big pile of money while people are dying.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Collie–Preston, I call you to order for the
first time.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What an extraordinary outburst, when
the member for Collie–Preston knows that the government is spending
millions of dollars on improving the Collie Coalfields highway, and when he was
in government, he did nothing. We are improving his local roads.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Thank you. We are getting the wall of noise now. Wind it up,
please, minister.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Back to the amazing people in the
wheatbelt community. We have had over 350 contacts through our portal, and that
number is still growing. People are nominating the patches of road that they
want to see improved. They are nominating where the near-misses have been, and
feeding into the solutions for the issues we face with road safety in the
wheatbelt.
Mr
M.P. Murray interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Collie–Preston, I call you to order now for the second time.
Minister, a quick ending.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY :
Mr Speaker, I am nearly finished.
All of this effort culminated in a forum in Merredin, which
was attended by the member for Wagin and the Minister for Sport and Recreation
in her capacity as a local member. At that forum were over 50 road safety
stakeholders from the wheatbelt community—people who live in that
community and care about road safety and about finding outcomes in the road
safety space—and 30 experts who were part of the review group. We
tasked each of the tables at the forum come up with solutions to a particular
problem.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Girraween.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY :
Out of this forum, we have actually had local people assist us in understanding
the cultural issues of road safety in the wheatbelt. It has never been done in
Western Australia before. Unlike the people over on the other side of the
house, we believe in local issues for local solutions. That is why the regional
representation in this Parliament is predominantly on this side of the house,
because we engage with local communities and ask them to help us find
solutions. We will allocate money from the road trauma trust account to fix the
problems in the wheatbelt.
question on wheatbelt road safety, and I also acknowledge his strong advocacy
for his community in the road safety space. I appreciate and acknowledge his
continued effort in this area.
A few months ago I initiated a
wheatbelt highway safety review, the first of its kind to be conducted in
Western Australia. The review was based on a successful model that had been
trialled in New South Wales, where they were trying to get to the crux of the
problem on particular patches of road where the road safety outcomes were
particularly poor. As the member is no doubt well aware, people living in or
driving through the wheatbelt are seven times more likely to be victims of road
trauma as people in metropolitan Perth. That statistic is not acceptable, and
that is why we have undertaken this wheatbelt highway safety review. All the
stakeholders in road safety are involved in this—Main Roads, police
from the major crash unit, the Office of the State Coroner, the Insurance
Commission of Western Australia, the Office of Road Safety and our new Road Safety
Commission. They have examined a large number of crashes across the wheatbelt
between 2009 and 2013. They have had a look at the causes of those crashes. The
second stage of this review was to take that crash analysis and do a road trip.
Those experts have driven along 370 kilometres of the Great Eastern Highway and
the Great Southern Highway to examine where the crashes occurred and to try to
understand what happened in those circumstances. We also opened an online
portal through the Road Safety Commission website. Over 350 people from the
local community have nominated bad patches of road and areas where they would
like to see a focus on improved road safety. Obviously, we know where the
crashes occur, and we can log and record those.
Mr
M.P. Murray : Are you going to spend some money to fix it up? You're
sitting on a big pile of money while people are dying.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Collie–Preston, I call you to order for the
first time.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What an extraordinary outburst, when
the member for Collie–Preston knows that the government is spending
millions of dollars on improving the Collie Coalfields highway, and when he was
in government, he did nothing. We are improving his local roads.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Thank you. We are getting the wall of noise now. Wind it up,
please, minister.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Back to the amazing people in the
wheatbelt community. We have had over 350 contacts through our portal, and that
number is still growing. People are nominating the patches of road that they
want to see improved. They are nominating where the near-misses have been, and
feeding into the solutions for the issues we face with road safety in the
wheatbelt.
Mr
M.P. Murray interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Collie–Preston, I call you to order now for the second time.
Minister, a quick ending.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY :
Mr Speaker, I am nearly finished.
All of this effort culminated in a forum in Merredin, which
was attended by the member for Wagin and the Minister for Sport and Recreation
in her capacity as a local member. At that forum were over 50 road safety
stakeholders from the wheatbelt community—people who live in that
community and care about road safety and about finding outcomes in the road
safety space—and 30 experts who were part of the review group. We
tasked each of the tables at the forum come up with solutions to a particular
problem.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER :
Member for Girraween.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY :
Out of this forum, we have actually had local people assist us in understanding
the cultural issues of road safety in the wheatbelt. It has never been done in
Western Australia before. Unlike the people over on the other side of the
house, we believe in local issues for local solutions. That is why the regional
representation in this Parliament is predominantly on this side of the house,
because we engage with local communities and ask them to help us find
solutions. We will allocate money from the road trauma trust account to fix the
problems in the wheatbelt.
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