FEDS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT SEATBELTS
Published Thursday, 20 September, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
The federal government was told today it would have to put up a significant amount of money and remove some tax disincentives if it wanted to appear to be serious about seat belts in schoolbuses.
Queensland's Transport Minister, John Mickel, said the latest estimate for the cost of installing seatbelts in schoolbuses in Queensland alone was about $1 billion.
In addition to that, the federal government actually taxed the funds the Queensland Government provided to schoolbus operators to install seatbelts in their buses.
"In Queensland, seatbelts will be mandatory from the end of 2009 on what are gazetted as steep roads, so Queensland Transport has a completely state-based funding scheme that pays 100% of the cost of seatbelts for buses travelling on those roads," Mr Mickel said.
"In all other areas outside the urban bus contract areas, seatbelts are optional but we will pay half the cost of seatbelts on new buses with 30 seats or more, and 40% towards the cost of seatbelts on other schoolbuses that are "rollover-compliant".
"Since the introduction of that program in 2005, it has funded seatbelts in 98 buses, and will fund a further 53 this financial year, at a cost of almost $1.5 million so far.
"Unfortunately, not all that money is used for seatbelts because the federal government taxes it as assessable income for the bus operator.
"The state government asked the Australian Taxation Office to reconsider this but we got nowhere.
"It does seem to support the view that the federal government's not very serious about seatbelts in schoolbuses when it talks about $40 million four years nationally."
Mr Mickel said the Queensland Government's approach to safety for students travelling on schoolbuses was concentrated on building a fleet of vehicles that complied with rollover standards – such as the bus that was involved in the incident near Gympie earlier this week.
"Seatbelts can't be fitted to all buses because they need specific reinforcement under the floor, and to fit seatbelts in a bus that is not rollover-compliant would simply give the illusion of added safety," he said.
"On top of that, seatbelts effectively eliminate the current system that allows for the seating of three students per every two seats and others standing, and that means more buses, some of which can cost up to $300,000 each.
"The universal fitting of belts would also require extra buses to allow for sporadic variation in loads and unexpected growth in an area.
"Travelling to and from school by bus under current arrangements is the safest form of travel for students even without belts.
"But if the federal government wants to over-ride the states on the matter of seatbelts in buses, it's going to have to do a lot better than its latest package to be regarded as genuine about the matter."
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Media contact: Chris Brown 3237 1944 or Elouise Campion 3237 1125.
Queensland's Transport Minister, John Mickel, said the latest estimate for the cost of installing seatbelts in schoolbuses in Queensland alone was about $1 billion.
In addition to that, the federal government actually taxed the funds the Queensland Government provided to schoolbus operators to install seatbelts in their buses.
"In Queensland, seatbelts will be mandatory from the end of 2009 on what are gazetted as steep roads, so Queensland Transport has a completely state-based funding scheme that pays 100% of the cost of seatbelts for buses travelling on those roads," Mr Mickel said.
"In all other areas outside the urban bus contract areas, seatbelts are optional but we will pay half the cost of seatbelts on new buses with 30 seats or more, and 40% towards the cost of seatbelts on other schoolbuses that are "rollover-compliant".
"Since the introduction of that program in 2005, it has funded seatbelts in 98 buses, and will fund a further 53 this financial year, at a cost of almost $1.5 million so far.
"Unfortunately, not all that money is used for seatbelts because the federal government taxes it as assessable income for the bus operator.
"The state government asked the Australian Taxation Office to reconsider this but we got nowhere.
"It does seem to support the view that the federal government's not very serious about seatbelts in schoolbuses when it talks about $40 million four years nationally."
Mr Mickel said the Queensland Government's approach to safety for students travelling on schoolbuses was concentrated on building a fleet of vehicles that complied with rollover standards – such as the bus that was involved in the incident near Gympie earlier this week.
"Seatbelts can't be fitted to all buses because they need specific reinforcement under the floor, and to fit seatbelts in a bus that is not rollover-compliant would simply give the illusion of added safety," he said.
"On top of that, seatbelts effectively eliminate the current system that allows for the seating of three students per every two seats and others standing, and that means more buses, some of which can cost up to $300,000 each.
"The universal fitting of belts would also require extra buses to allow for sporadic variation in loads and unexpected growth in an area.
"Travelling to and from school by bus under current arrangements is the safest form of travel for students even without belts.
"But if the federal government wants to over-ride the states on the matter of seatbelts in buses, it's going to have to do a lot better than its latest package to be regarded as genuine about the matter."
___________________________________
Media contact: Chris Brown 3237 1944 or Elouise Campion 3237 1125.