Safety targets for road chief
WA will have a road safety commissioner with key performance indicators possibly linked to the road toll under sweeping changes to road safety governance.
Road Safety Minister Liza Harvey yesterday endorsed most of the 56 recommendations in a review by retired education director-general Peter Browne released in September.
The Government's 2012 decision to direct 100 per cent of speed and red light fines revenue into the road trauma trust account resulted in the fund surging from $17.4 million in 2007-08 to $100 million allocated last year, with $80 million unspent.
Mrs Harvey said this heightened the need for accountability and transparency in how RTTA funds were spent, which she was confident the new structures would provide. The Office of Road Safety will become the Office of the Commissioner of Road Safety and no longer have a seat at the Road Safety Council, but instead act as the council's secretariat.
The Road Safety Council will be transformed into the Road Safety Advisory Council, to be chaired by the commissioner with widened membership, including vulnerable road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and rural, aged and indigenous drivers.
Enforcement agencies such as WA Police and the Department of the Attorney-General will be allowed to access RTTA funds to process fines - a measure the Opposition and RAC opposed.
The Government also accepted Mr Browne's recommendation that RTTA funds be allocated within two years, a move apparently aimed at the much criticised "pooling" of RTTA funds while road deaths rose.
Asked if the commissioner's KPIs would be linked to the road toll, Mrs Harvey said "absolutely", before qualifying her answer to "potentially".
Mr Browne said he was confident the changes "will bring the road toll down because regrettably it has slipped".
Shadow road safety minister Michelle Roberts said the commissioner would have no real independence because they report to the minister, not Parliament.
An interim commissioner is to be in place by July 1 while a permanent chief is found.
Mrs Harvey has asked current Road Safety Council chairman Murray Lampard to remain until his contract expires in October.
