The Albanese Labor Government has been forced into an embarrassing backflip on its ill-conceived plan to slash speed limits on regional roads to 70 km/h, a proposal that never should have seen the light of day.
Federal Member for Flynn, Colin Boyce said the decision to quietly drop the policy is an admission that Labor has failed to address the real issue: fixing dangerous, crumbling regional roads.
"Regional communities, local councils, and Coalition MPs mounted a powerful grassroots campaign against Labor's reckless plan and common sense has finally prevailed," Mr Boyce said.
"It should never have taken this long. The Government wasted months pushing a policy that punished regional motorists instead of repairing the roads that endanger them."
Mr Boyce said the Government's backdown follows overwhelming public opposition, including more than 11,000 submissions rejecting Labor's proposal.
"Labor ignored the calls from communities in Flynn to not slower speed limits. Cutting speed limits was to be a lazy substitute for real road investment," he said.
The backdown comes as Australia faces a worsening road-safety crisis:
- 1,361 Australians lost their lives on the road in the past year – a 6.9 per cent increase.
- Two-thirds of those fatalities occurred in regional Australia.
- October recorded the worst monthly toll in five years, with fatalities 14.9 per cent above average.
"Axing the speed-limit plan is a victory for regional Australia, but road safety won't improve until the Albanese Government invests in the roads themselves. It's time they got on with the task of making roads safer by fixing them, filling the potholes," Mr Boyce said.
