Our Plan to make Australians safer on our roads

After a decade between January 2010 and June 2020 where annual fatalities declined from 1,502 down to 1,090, Australia’s road toll has risen significantly. In 2024, Australia experienced its deadliest year on the roads since 2012.

The Albanese Government has failed to provide the leadership required to address this growing challenge.

New data released in April 2025 confirms the toll continues to rise. Research by the Australian Automobile Association reveals:

• 1,284 people were killed on Australian roads in the 12 months to 31 March – the worst year-to-March outcome since 2013.
• Total deaths were up 1.2 per cent over the year, with cyclist deaths (44) up 41.9%, and motorcyclist deaths (272) up 5.4%.

In the 2024 calendar year, 1,300 lives were lost – up 3.3% from 1,258 in 2023, which itself marked a 6.8% increase from 1,178 deaths in 2022.

The National Road Safety Strategy – developed by the Coalition in partnership with state and territory governments – set a goal of reducing road deaths by 50% and serious injuries by 30% by 2030, using 2018-2020 averages as the baseline.

This worsening crisis carries an enormous social and economic cost. Every life lost on our roads is a tragedy. The economic cost to the country runs to an estimated $27 billion per year.

Labor’s decision to cancel, cut, or delay more than $30 billion in infrastructure funding over the past three years has only made the task more difficult.

The Coalition believes Australia’s roads should be safe and productive for all users – regardless of whether you live in Dubbo or Darwin, Melbourne or Mount Gambier, Busselton or Brisbane.

The rising road toll demands urgent action. A Dutton Coalition Government will act immediately to restore a national focus on road safety.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Commit $250 million to increase the Roads to Recovery program, immediately lifting funding to $1 billion per year commencing 2025-26, helping local governments maintain and upgrade safer local roads
• Invest $10 million to re-establish the Driver Reviver Site Upgrades program
• Allocate $6 million for a national pilot to investigate road crashes on a no-fault basis to better understand crash causes
• Require state and territory governments to report road safety data and work with jurisdictions to improve transparency around that data
• Commit $1 billion to reinstate the successful Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program – supporting vital infrastructure and improving the 77% of Australia’s road network that is locally managed
• Reinstate the 80:20 federal funding model for nationally significant road projects in regional and remote areas – ensuring more regional roads and highways are upgraded
• Establish a $600 million Ag and Mining Roads program; and
• Deliver more than $14 billion for better and safer roads across the country to get road safety back on track, including:
  • $7.2 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway in Queensland with a priority on safety and resilience
  • $840 million to get 60 per cent of trucks off the South Eastern Freeway and Adelaide suburban streets by building the Greater Adelaide Freight Bypass in South Australia
  • $225 million for the Reid Highway-Erindale Road grade separation, Western Australia
  • $200 million for progressive duplication of the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory
  • $192 million to upgrade the Donnybrook Road-Hume Highway interchange in Victoria, complete the duplication of Donnybrook Road and remove the level crossing
  • $100 million for a flyover at the Maitland Roundabout of the New England Highway and Cessnock Road in New South Wales; and
  • $80 million to duplicate the Bass Highway from Launceston to Deloraine in Tasmania.

Our Plan

1. Provide immediate increased funding for the Roads to Recovery program

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• invest an extra $250 million in the Roads to Recovery program, immediately lifting funding to $1 billion per year commencing in 2025-26, helping local governments maintain and upgrade local roads.

Established in 2001 by the Howard Government, the Roads to Recovery program delivers an ongoing funding commitment to fix local roads over a five-year funding period, providing a stable and predictable source of funding.

Local governments manage 77 per cent of the national road network, and their roads account for 40 percent of fatalities.

The Roads to Recovery program has provided around $500 million per year to support local governments to fix and maintain local roads across the country.

In 2023 Labor promised to double the Roads to Recovery program, but they delayed funding to future years making this yet another Labor broken promise for local communities.

Since 2023, Australia’s 550 local governments have received only $150 million additional funding under the program from the Albanese Government. Labor’s broken promise directly contrasts with the $3 billion the Coalition provided to local governments through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) program during our last term in office, and the additional $1 billion commitment to reinstate the LRCI program, if elected.

The Coalition is committed to taking decisive action to increase Roads to Recovery funding to $1 billion immediately, commencing 2025-26, a full two years ahead of schedule.

Roads to Recovery funding – Labor vs Coalition

This means councils will receive $1.35 billion more in Roads to Recovery funding during the first term of a Coalition Government than under Labor’s first term.

The Roads to Recovery Program supports local governments to construct and maintain the nation’s local road infrastructure assets, which facilitates greater accessibility and improves safety and economic and social outcomes for Australians. Eligible funding activities include (but are not limited to) gravel sheeting, constructing new roads, resealing, and road reconstruction.

The program provides funding to all local governments (and to state and territory governments acting on behalf of unincorporated areas). Councils are required to invest $1 of their own source funds into road maintenance for every $1 funded by the program.

A strength of the Roads to Recovery program is the flexibility it provides to local governments, with councils responsible for choosing road projects on which to spend their Roads to Recovery funding, based on their local priorities.

2. Establish a new Driver Reviver Site Upgrades program

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• invest $10 million over three years to establish a new Driver Reviver Site Upgrades program to improve driver reviver amenities and signage, install new equipment and support the establishment of new sites.

Driver Reviver is a community program which has been operating in Australia for over 30 years. Sites are staffed by volunteers from community and service organisations including Lions Clubs, SES, VRA Rescue NSW, Country Fire Service, and the Country Women’s Association.

There are more than 180 driver reviver sites across Australia which encourage drivers to take a break and provide free tea, coffee and snacks. An estimated 23 million cups of tea and coffee have been provided by driver reviver volunteers.

These sites provide important safety and fatigue breaks for drivers and passengers on long trips. Fatigue is one of the leading causes of fatalities on Australian roads, responsible for 20-30% of fatal accidents, particularly in rural areas where two thirds of all fatalities occur.

The service offered through the driver reviver program is especially important during peak holiday periods and long weekends when Australians spend more time on the roads.

Under the former Coalition Government’s commitment, more than 100 sites across the country were supported with a total of $8 million invested under the Driver Reviver Site Upgrades program from June 2020. These funds delivered electronic variable message signs for 32 driver reviver sites and upgraded 81 roadside rest areas.

3. Fund a national pilot to investigate road crashes to learn and understand causes of crashes

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Provide $6 million over three years to expand the scope of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to oversee a national pilot to investigate road crashes. This will be done on a no-fault basis to learn and understand the causes behind road crashes to enable the development and implementation of mitigation strategies.

As an independent agency with a trusted reputation for no-blame investigations, the ATSB currently undertakes investigation of air, rail and maritime incidents – but not road crashes.

There is a significant gap in the knowledge of the causes of crashes, which must be closed.

Australian road safety experts have argued that the road safety task requires data and increased knowledge to develop more effective responses.

National governments in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA have established entities that undertake no-blame investigation of road crashes.

Failure to learn the true cause of crashes hinders the implementation of mitigation measures meaning that preventable fatalities and serious injuries continue to occur on Australia’s road networks.

No-fault investigations are aimed at determining the factors which led to an accident or safety incident so that lessons can be learned and transport safety improved in the future.

State and territory police authorities investigate road safety accidents to determine whether an offence has been committed or to determine the cause of death. In some cases, workplace health and safety investigators may also play a role in investigations. These investigations are all centred around determining fault or assigning blame.

There is no independent organisation that looks beyond apportioning blame to analyse the underlying cause and make recommendations on systemic changes to prevent similar events.

4. Reinstate the highly successful and popular Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Commit $1 billion to reinvigorate the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) program, through two streams that will each receive $500 million:
  • Resilience and Community Infrastructure stream – open to all councils, this stream will help strengthen communities against natural disasters and fund essential infrastructure to support local growth.
  • Roads stream – targeted to regional councils to fix potholes, maintain and improve local roads.

The Coalition believes that locals are best placed to deliver the services and infrastructure our communities need. This is our commitment to bring Local Government back into a partnership with the Federal Government after three years of being left behind.

Unlike the Labor Government, which has spent the past three years cancelling, cutting and delaying $30 billion worth of infrastructure projects, the Coalition is tackling the immediate challenges that hold back communities across Australia.

It is our commitment to ensure every community across Australia has the services and amenities that make our communities the best places to live.

Providing this significant funding boost means we are investing in the long-term economic foundations of Australia and enhancing the safety and efficiency of the road network.

Supporting councils across Australia to build strong and resilient communities ensures families access to free, world-class infrastructure.

When prioritising roads to upgrade under the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program, councils will be asked to consider those local roads with low AusRAP safety ratings as well as projects that increase access to the local road network by heavy vehicles.

Peak industry bodies and local governments across Australia have been calling for the return of the LRCI program since it was axed by the Albanese Government. 

5. Reinstate the 80:20 Federal Funding Model

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Reinstate the 80:20 federal funding model for nationally significant road projects in regional and remote areas ensuring more regional roads and highways are upgraded.

The Coalition’s plan to restore 80:20 funding for nationally significant regional road projects will incentivise the state governments to partner in productivity enhancing upgrades to important freight routes, resulting in more upgrades getting underway.

In a cost cutting measure after Labor’s ‘90 day’ infrastructure review, Anthony Albanese  cut federal funding commitments for regional road infrastructure to 50:50. This meant Labor has cut the Federal funding contribution for roads of national significance from $4 down to $1 for every dollar a state government invests in these roads.

The Government ignored warnings from an independent review of federal road funding that scrapping the 80:20 funding formula would result in reduced investment in regional roads, and that is exactly what we have seen under Labor.

As a result, regional roads have missed out on critical road funding and country roads have been left to deteriorate.

In contrast, the Coalition has the backs of the nine million Australians who live outside our capital cities. A Dutton Coalition Government will restore the 80 per cent Commonwealth funding rule for all new nationally significant regional road projects from our first day in Government.

The Coalition is dedicated to driving and delivering change on our roads. Public funding should be invested to achieve the best outcomes for community safety and the efficient movement of people and freight.  

The former Coalition Government was committed to establishing a National Data Sharing Agreement with the states and territories to establish consistent metrics and reporting for road safety data. This data should be required to be made available at a national level to inform policy and investment decisions supporting road safety across all levels of government. We remain committed to this principle.

Therefore, an elected Coalition Government will require states and territories to report road safety data and AusRAP road safety ratings and will work with jurisdictions to improve transparency around that data to help inform road safety investment decisions.

Road safety data collected by the states and territories, together with AusRAP road safety ratings, are important tools for road authorities to understand where the hazards are, what treatments will work, how effective they will be and to ensure authorities can plan for the best strategic investment to make roads safer and more productive.

6. Establish a $600 million Ag & Mining Roads program

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Establish a $600 million Ag & Mining Roads program to support our mining, resources and farming sectors by investing in infrastructure to upgrade agricultural and mining roads critical to getting product to domestic and export markets.

Every Australian has a higher standard of living because of the wealth generated by selling our resources, food and fibre to the world. Critically, the agriculture and resources sectors employ more than 600,000 Australians.

This new Ag & Mining Roads program will make it easier to transport products from the farms and pits to the supermarket shelf, to power our businesses, or on a boat to go overseas. The Coalition will work with representatives of the trucking, farming and mining industries to identify the priority roads to be upgraded in each state to remove barriers to the growth of our resources and farming sectors.

By investing in this program, the Coalition will build on our record of investing in critical regional freight routes through initiatives like the Bridges Renewal, Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity and Roads of Strategic Importance programs, all of which have been cut by the Labor Government.

The Ag & Mining Roads program will be delivered over four years and will invest in sealing, widening and strengthening roads, highways and bridges, building flood immunity and resilience upgrades.

The Choice

After a decade of declining road toll numbers, the road toll has increased 18.5 per cent since 2021. The Albanese Labor Government has not invested the time, resources or leadership required to tackle the rise in road fatalities seriously.

Labor’s mismanagement has meant that Australia finds itself edging further and further away from achieving the national goal of halving road deaths by 2030.

The road safety task has been made more difficult because the Albanese Labor Government has cancelled, cut and delayed more than $30 billion worth of infrastructure projects nationally over the past three years – delaying life saving improvements to the national road network.

Despite promising to increase transparency, Labor has only made a direct link between the road safety rating and their investment decision once (on the Bruce Highway in Queensland).

Labor has no plan to improve safety on our roads and address the alarming road toll.

In contrast, the Coalition has a strong history of improving our road network and making our roads safer.

During our time in government, road deaths as a proportion of the population fell by 35 per cent. We developed the record $120 billion,10-year infrastructure investment program which featured significant road safety improvements across major project investments, including the Bruce Highway in Queensland, the Pacific Highway in New South Wales and the Bass Highway in Tasmania.

Building on this record, a Dutton Coalition Government will continue to make significant investments to improve road safety in regional Australia, where there are 10 road deaths per 100,000 persons compared to two deaths per 100,000 persons in metropolitan areas.

Our plan goes beyond improving road quality to include technology improvements and addressing risky driving behaviours. The Coalition will strengthen programs that help to combat driver fatigue and support industry innovation.

A Dutton Coalition Government will get to work immediately to get our road safety back on track.

The total cost of the new initiatives announced in this policy is $1.87 billion over four years, on top of the new specific road projects included in the more than $14 billion to be delivered by the Coalition for better and safer roads.