A “missed opportunity” is how the nation’s peak motoring body described today’s official response by the Federal Government to twelve expert recommendations into Australia’s failing National Road Safety Strategy.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) said while it was pleased road safety had been put back on the parliamentary agenda, it had also been five months since the Federal Government received the expert recommendations. The AAA said given the delayed response, meaningful budget commitments would have been more appropriate, along with detailed plans on how to restructure road funding with an elevated focus on safety.

AAA Chief Executive Michael Bradley said: “It’s concerning that today’s response provided very little in terms of immediate actions when it comes to implementing the recommendations provided by the Government’s chosen experts.

“After five months, today was an opportunity for the Federal Government to announce how much of the recommended $3 billion annual spend on road safety improvements will be delivered in this year’s Budget.

“It was also an opportunity to demonstrate urgency and federal leadership on road safety; but after five months, we were told in another five months, a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments may “consider” an implementation plan for the recommendations”.

The AAA was also hoping the Federal Government would use today’s opportunity to outline the structure of a national office of road safety, but instead, the Government has committed to consider what one “should look like”.

More than 100 Australians are seriously injured every day on our roads and a further 100 are killed every month.

The AAA welcomed the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement that data outlining national serious injuries from road crashes will be available from 2019/20 onwards: an important achievement that will go a long way to helping measure the success of future road safety initiatives.

The AAA this week released its benchmark road safety report, which confirmed Australia is not close to meeting road safety targets that all states and the Commonwealth agreed to eight years ago.