Federal black spot dollars full of potholes

The Federal Government’s pledge to continue funding for road accident black spots is welcome but the dollars fail to match the rhetoric, Parliamentary Secretary for Main Roads, Andrew McNamara, said.

“Canberra boasts it spends $45 million dollars a year on its Black Spot program, big deal – that’s $45 million nationwide, a mere pothole compared to what Queensland spends.

“The numbers speak for themselves with the State Government pouring almost $50 million a year into Queensland alone on road works aimed at improving safety through the Safer Roads Sooner program.”

Mr McNamara said Queensland has been advised it could receive up to $8.9 million from the Federal Government next financial year to extend the Black Spots program with promises of a 33% increase in national funding from 2009 -10.

“Well that’s a bonus, with construction costs skyrocketing at 15 percent a year we might just break even in real terms.

“But there’s no guarantee Queensland will actually see any extra dollars because we have to prove there’s a crash history before a road project qualifies for black spot funding.

“Even then they’ll take regional population into account before deciding if a project is worthy.”

Mr McNamara said the irony was the Federal Government had said today about half the funding would be allocated to regional areas because of the high number of accidents on country roads.

“The reality is in a decentralised state like Queensland the Federal Government should be putting its hand in its pocket to help improve road safety.

“$8.9 million is woefully inadequate particularly when the mayors of North Queensland are lobbying Canberra for more than a billion dollars to fix Australia’s longest national highway black spot – the Bruce Highway from Sarina to Cairns.

“Despite the thousands of Australians migrating north every month, Queensland has drawn the road funding short straw yet again.

“Queensland pumps $2.7 billion into federal coffers through fuel taxes every year – it’s about time more was returned in serious road funding dollars not just tokenism.

“Again I thank the Federal Government for the money it spends on the Black Spots program, it’s a good start but doesn’t begin to address the inequity of road funding in northern Australia,” Mr McNamara said.

Media Contact: Darren Roberts 3237 1947