The first real test of the federal government's intent to cut the pork-barrelling using the billions of dollars spent every year on road funding projects will face assessment at a meeting of state and territory transport ministers in Brisbane on Friday.
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For years, road safety advocates have argued federal road funding - which in the most recent budget was $16.5 billion over 10 years from 2024-25 - should be directly linked to full transparency on road trauma.
Important collated information about the causes of road trauma - such as where the crashes occur, why they occur, the type of injuries sustained, the road conditions at the time, and data on driver age and experience - are only published years afterward, which offers no help in fixing emerging issues.
For instance, hospitalised injuries from road crashes are now available for the first time online on the Federal Office of Road Safety dashboard - but the most recent data is from 2021.
The FORS office recently received a $21.2 million budget boost but is powerless to gather timely data without agreement between the jurisdictions.
Embarrassingly for governments across the country - including the ACT - crash and trauma data is headed upwards, with 114 national road deaths during the month of April alone, 24.7 per cent higher than the average for April over the previous five years.
Nationally, the 12-month road toll to the end of April is running 11.2 per cent higher than for the same period in 2023.
No agenda is offered for Friday's national transport meeting but federal Transport Minister Catherine King, who is hosting the event, previously pledged to urge the states and territories to seek agreement.
Meanwhile, as the 2024 road toll climbs steadily upwards, the assistant Minister for Transport, Senator Carol Brown, announced $10.8 million to be spent on a one-year "national road safety and awareness campaign". No details have been offered on how this money will be spent.
Independent ACT senator David Pocock has joined the chorus of support for an overhaul of federal road funding arrangements so the billions of tax dollars spent are better targeted to save lives, rather than prop up election campaigns.
"I have listened to the deep grief of families who have lost loved ones on our roads," Senator Pocock said.
"Far too many people are killed year after year and for far too long road transport investments have been influenced by political pork-barrelling rather than an objective assessment of safety and genuine infrastructure needs.
"It is deeply frustrating and defies common sense that the road safety data needed to drive better policy outcomes and accountability is neither consistent nor transparent across the country.
"I have sought agreement from the federal government to pursue national agreement with the states and territories to share and publish transparent, nationally consistent road safety data and am hopeful this will be forthcoming."
Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson said the national data-sharing program should be actioned as soon as possible.
"More than 1200 people died in the last 12 months on Australian roads and that number is rising by 5 per cent each year," he said
"To understand what's really happening and to develop effective policy we need a data set that gives the big picture."
