On Tuesday 10 February 2026, Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) CEO, Dr Ingrid Johnston, met with Teal Crossbench MPs Allegra Spender, Dr Monique Ryan, Nicolette Boele, Kate Chaney, and Dr Sophie Scamps for a road safety briefing.
Dr Johnston began by introducing the ACRS and providing an overview of the work that ACRS does, before the discussion then turned to highlight the current alarming trends in road trauma and deaths in Australia, and the predicted increases over the coming years if road safety is not strengthened and prioritised by the Government.
The briefing then focussed on 6 potential policy priorities and solutions:
- New housing developments – ensuring that all new housing developments connect to safe active travel routes and public transport, and road infrastructure can support increased traffic volumes
- ATSB equivalent for road crashes – legislating and appropriately resourcing an agency like the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, with powers to investigate road crashes
- Safe design for roads – 3 star or better roads through improving infrastructure; publishing State and Territory road infrastructure star ratings for existing roads; and to develop a regulatory impact assessment on reducing urban speed limits and associated traffic calming
- Vehicle safety standards – for Australian standards to align to those in Europe
- Governance and accountability – creating a well-supported Joint Standing Committee on road safety; appoint a cabinet minister with specific multiagency responsibilities; and for key performance indicators to be published annually
- Price signals to promote safety – develop a new road user charging system to promote safety; ending the luxury car tax exemption that incentivises bigger and heavy cars and utility vehicles.
The ACRS was grateful for the opportunity to meet with the Teal MPs and looks forward to any future opportunities to work together to strengthen and shape safer outcomes for all road users.
