Joint Communique

4 May 2007, Broome

Australian, State and Territory Transport Ministers and the President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) met in Broome on Friday 4 May 2007 to consider a range of important national transport issues.

Ministers welcomed the decisions made by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) at its 13 April 2007 meeting that affirm the importance of ongoing transport sector reforms and respond in particular to the Productivity Commission review into road and rail freight infrastructure pricing.

ROAD SAFEY INITIATIVES

Transport Ministers discussed the recent trends in national road deaths and noted that vigorous action will be required to achieve the 2010 National Road Safety Strategy target of 5.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

Ministers considered the key initiatives needed to increase the rate of improvement. They agreed that particular action is needed in the key areas of speed management and road-based safety treatments, where there is greatest scope to achieve substantial and relatively rapid gains.
They reinforced their support for the introduction of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) into the Australian vehicle fleet. Ministers will receive a comprehensive report on the take up of the technology and future implementation issues prior to their next meeting in November 2007.

Ministers agreed to report back to the next ATC meeting on specific actions including targeted speed enforcement, speed zones and targeting high risk zones for speed limits that would be taken to accelerate progress towards the 2010 target.

THIRD INDIGENOUS ROAD SAFETY FORUM

Transport Ministers noted the outcomes of the Third Indigenous Road Safety Forum held in Broome in October 2006. The Forum provided an opportunity for stakeholders to share resources and information on Indigenous road safety issues, and to develop practical and locally-relevant initiatives. Recommendations from the Forum covered a range of actions for government and community organisations to pursue over the next two years.

PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION INQUIRY INTO ROAD AND RAIL FREIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE PRICING

Ministers welcomed COAG's response to the recommendations of this important review, endorsing the need to implement a phased approach to reform of heavy vehicle charging arrangements and supporting the ambitious research and policy reform agenda to lay the foundations for considering a move to mass, distance and location-based pricing.

Further, as called for by COAG, ATC has directed the National Transport Commission to develop a new heavy vehicle charges determination to be implemented from 1 July 2008 that ensures cost recovery of heavy vehicles' allocated infrastructure costs in aggregate and which also ensures that cross-subsidisation across heavy vehicle classes is removed. The NTC has now been tasked to prepare a draft Regulation Impact Statement for release as a basis of public consultation on this issue and to inform further consideration of this issue by Ministers.

COAG TRANSPORT REFORM AGENDA

Ministers noted the re-endorsement by COAG of the need to continue to pursue national uniformity in regulation and to improve productivity and safety in the transport sector.  Ministers considered a range of issues on transport reform and agreed that lifting national productivity through regulatory reform of the road freight sector is the critical mechanism under the Council's control for meeting ongoing growth in community demand for freight services.

Ministers agreed that lifting national productivity of the road freight sector enables simultaneous achievement of greater economic efficiency, improved safety outcomes and lower environmental emissions from the freight transport task. In particular, use of more productive vehicles facilitates delivery of these key objectives by ensuring that freight demand growth will be increasingly met by fewer and more modern vehicles.

In agreeing this, Ministers noted that consistency of national regulations also has a key role in delivering productivity and facilitating a national market.

Ministers noted that the current tools available to deliver road transport productivity growth include the implementation of Performance Based Standards (PBS), delivery of a national B-triple network and the expansion of the Higher Mass Limits (HML) network - along with successful delivery of the recent quad axle policy commitments.

Ministers noted that each of these reforms has the strong endorsement of COAG. Ministers agreed an initial B-triple network and requested the NTC to work with industry to identify the next routes for expansion of the B-Triple networks.  Ministers also asked NSW to lead jurisdictions work with industry to identify the scope to expand Australia's Higher Mass Limits network to link key distribution points to the AusLink network.

Ministers approved the establishment of the Performance Based Standards Review Panel to facilitate the implementation of Performance Based Standards. 

Ministers noted that in taking forward reforms the principle remained that individual States and Territories are the final arbiters with respect to approving access for PBS vehicles.

Ministers noted the COAG decision that each jurisdiction will implement its own specific responses to urban congestion, and have established inter-jurisdiction arrangements to improve urban congestion data, modelling and network performance information.

WORKING WITH INDUSTRY

Ministers welcomed presentations from Mr Lindsay Fox, AO on "Intelligent Transport Systems, including Fatigue Management and Digital Tachographs" and Mr Kevin Watt, on "Steerable Axles". These new technologies have the potential to significantly improve safety, increase productivity of the road freight transport industry and improve the environmental performance. Electronically based Intelligent Transport Systems also have the capacity to ensure a uniform, transparent and stringent logbook record keeping regime. 

PLANNING AND PREPARATION FOR POSSIBLE PANDEMIC INFLUENZA

Transport Ministers noted a report from the Standing Committee on Transport (SCOT) on the possible effects on transport of pandemic influenza.  The report outlines key issues that would arise for the transport sector in the event of pandemic influenza, and the planning and preparation that has been undertaken by all levels of government and by the transport industry to date.  The report emphasises the importance of ongoing pandemic planning and preparation by government and industry.

The ATC meeting was attended by:

Last Updated: 8 May, 2007.