Default speed limits in Australia: Your submission is needed by 10 November

We encourage all our iRAP Partners in Australia to contribute their expertise and inputs to the Federal Government consultation on reduced open road default speed limits.  Your submission is needed by 10 November so please submit to help ensure evidence-based inputs out-weigh the usual volume of responses that support unsafe speeds.

In simple terms road authorities set speed limits on most roads and that will not change.  On other roads – typically low volume rural and remote roads – there is a default speed limit.  That speed limit is typically 100km/h or 110km/h.

Those roads also typically have the lower design standards and lower maintenance levels.  All of that contributes to a risk per road user in rural and remote areas that is 11 times greater compared to a road in a city area.

In iRAP terms it is simple as the image below demonstrates.  At 110 and 100km/h you have a 1-star journey with an extremely high risk of fatal and serious injury.  At 90 and 80km/h you at least have a 2-star journey and at 70km/h you are having a 3-star or better journey that aligns with the UN Global Targets 3 and 4.

In rural and remote regions, everyone knows everyone.  That means the loss of a life and the sadness, lost time associated with grieving and impact on a community is extreme.  Changes to the default speed limit by at least 20km/h will more than halve the amount of times that sadness is felt.  That is why iRAP is supporting the changes to the default speed limit in Australia and we encourage you to do the same.

Have your say here – infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/regulatory-impact-analysis-reduce-open-road-default-speed-limit

Mid-term review of National Road Safety Strategy – Submit by 25 November 

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts is also undertaking a mid-term review of the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30.

You can have your say through the portal here:  The portal will be open until 11:59pm on Tuesday 25 November 2025.

At a time where the number of people killed and injured on our roads is rising – and we are even further away from the global targets to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 it is clear we need to act, act now, act big and act with urgency.

There is also a goal for Vision Zero in CBDs by 2030, zero deaths for kids under seven and zero deaths on national highways carrying 80% of the traffic.  Is the investment and implementation being mobilised to meet these targets?

The leadership and positive feedback on the recent launch of the Austroads led AusRAP Collection is a great start.  Now we need that transparent knowledge of how safe our roads are to translate into an appropriate scale of investment in safer road infrastructure for all road users and the implementation of safer speeds where needed so we reach the target for 80% of travel (for all road users) to be 3-star or better by 2030.

With road crashes costing us at least $45 billion a year it is simple:

• We are under-investing in every part of the safe system.
• We need to publish AusRAP Crash History Maps for every road every year.
• We need all infrastructure investment to have a Star Rating target for all road users.
• We need to routinely report the before and after Star Ratings for every road investment.
• We need to seriously look at speeds and now – 30km/h where pedestrians and cyclists thrive and 70 or 80km/h on our least safe undivided rural roads.
• We need to be ambitious. A Coalition of the Keen has formed to help deliver 5-star journeys to and from every venue as part of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  We can unite around that effort to prove Vision Zero is possible – for kids, for CBDs, for Olympians, for tourists and for our communities.

The Federal Government is seeking your input to assess the effectiveness of current road safety initiatives, identify emerging challenges and develop actionable recommendations to support the development of the next Action Plan.

Now is your time to shape a safer future.  Please submit here