Secrecy around road funding allocation needs to end
It is rare for a reform proposal to unite such disparate political players as the Nationals, the Greens, the Teals, the Liberals, as well as a broad suite of Independent MPs.
But during the 2025 Federal election campaign, the AAA’s call for road funding decisions to be backed by data demonstrating how they will improve road safety, has drawn such support across the political spectrum.
Our My Safety Counts campaign asks that the next Federal Government requires relevant safety ratings to be published when major Commonwealth road funding is announced, so that voters can understand why politicians are choosing to fund certain road projects.
It’s a campaign being driven by our state-based motoring clubs, which have for more than a century championed actions that improve road safety, and a commonsense approach to road funding.
We are doing this because our research shows Australians are deeply cynical about road funding, and that voters think federal politicians prioritise projects that deliver political benefits, over projects that deliver safety or economic benefits.
Such safety ratings exist. Every Australian state and territory uses the AusRAP star rating system to measure the safety of roads, and how different potential upgrades can affect safety outcomes.
In fact, about 500,000km of Australian roads have so far been rated using these AusRAP protocols.
But these ratings are not made public in Australia.
Since January, the AAA has tallied more than 80 new road project commitments from the major parties. The AAA expects more than half of these should have an AusRAP rating, yet only one project announcement has been substantiated by an AusRAP rating.
AusRAP’s engineering protocols are used in 131 other countries to evaluate risk factors such as average daily traffic; speed limit; number of lanes in each direction; lane width; shoulder width; presence or absence of roadside barriers and rumble strips; gradient and curvature; quality of line markings; skid resistance; whether the road is single or dual carriageway; and provisions for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
If politicians were required to reveal safety ratings at the time roads are funded, Australians could understand the road safety context of the funding decision. They could form a view about whether politicians fund roads to save lives, or simply to curry political favour in marginal electorates.
This simple transparency measure would lead to smarter road funding decisions and lift public confidence in the integrity of our political process.
But more importantly, it would also save lives, and maybe even start to reverse our national road toll’s current trend.
There were 1301 road deaths in 2024. They have increased every year for the past four consecutive years – the first time this has happened since the 1960s.
At the start of the decade, all Australian Governments signed a 10-year National Road Safety Strategy designed to halve road deaths by 2030. But since the Strategy took effect, road deaths are up by 17 per cent, with the 12 months to March 2025 recording 1284 deaths compared with 1097 in the 12 months immediately prior to the commencement of the Strategy.
The increases in road deaths are coming despite politicians continuing to invest heavily in roads.
Extra spending is welcome, but without accompanying data, Australians have no way of understanding whether the money is being allocated to projects with the greatest prospect of saving lives.
The AAA is encouraged by the diversity of supporters of our reform proposal. Barely a week since the AAA wrote to candidates contesting the May 3 election, more than 400 have responded with support.
Yet support for our ask is not yet universal.
In January, the Labor Government used AusRAP safety ratings to justify its $7.2 billion Bruce Highway investment. However, Labor candidates are yet to publicly endorse the AAA proposal to use data to underpin all major road funding decisions. The AAA and our campaign’s supporters hope the Labor Party comes on board and supports road funding integrity.
Making these ratings public and baking them into the road project selection process would clip the wings of politicians who want to make politically motivated funding decisions.
Secrecy about AusRAP ratings obscures the true nature of our road safety crisis.
The AAA will continue to publish responses from candidates at www.mysafetycounts.org.au and urge Australian motorists to let candidates know that hiding data about a critical issue of public safety is no longer acceptable.
By Michael Bradley, Australian Automobile Association Managing Director
First published in the Canberra Times on Wednesday 30 April