Green road pact on 30km/h limits

The Deputy PM has opposed plans for Australia to endorse a 30km/h limit for suburban roads.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack may attend the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden in February. Picture: AAP

Michael McCormack has pushed back against plans for Australia to sign an international road safety declaration in Sweden that endorses a 30km/h limit on suburban roads in response to “traffic injuries, air quality and climate change”.

The Nationals leader is scheduled to attend the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety on February 19, where he will join other transport and infrastructure ministers in ratifying the Stockholm Declaration, which will be referred to the UN.

A draft obtained by The Weekend Australian includes a preamble recommending integration of road safety with UN Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, gender equality and reduced inequalities targets.

The summit is expected to endorse speeding up the “shift toward cleaner, safer and more affordable modes of transport, incorporating higher levels of physical activity such as walking, cycling and using public transit”.

Clause seven of the draft declaration suggests mandating lower speeds on urban roads, which would have a significant impact on Australian residential limits, currently 50km/h.

It resolves to strengthen “law enforcement to ensure zero speeding and mandate a maximum road travel speed limit of 30km/h … in residential areas and urban neighbourhoods within cities as efforts to reduce speed will have an impact on both road traffic injuries, air quality and climate change”.

The Weekend Australian understands the Deputy Prime Minister had written to his department about the draft document in the past fortnight.

A spokesman for Mr McCormack had earlier said he “has had no approval or input into the wording of the current draft text”.

“The draft Stockholm Declaration will be considered at the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in February,” he said.

Despite The Weekend Australian understanding Mr McCormack and his chief of staff were confirmed to represent the government in Sweden, his spokesman said they were not sure whether his “schedule will permit him to attend”.

“If the Deputy Prime Minister does attend, the draft text will be carefully reviewed and the government would provide input where necessary,” he said.

Mr McCormack on Saturday said a global push to reduce speed limits to 30km/h would not work in Australia.

He said most residential speed limits were between 50-60km/h and that modern cars were now equipped with safety features, including radar equipment, GPS and autonomous braking.

“We don’t want to get into a nanny state situation where we are crawling around in cars at 30km/h when 50km/h is probably a more appropriate speed limit,” Mr McCormack said.

“That’s the speed limit that Australian Ministers at a state level have agreed upon. That’s the level I think is a good speed limit. I mean the fact is, in some high streets, in some main streets, 40km/h would probably be applicable but 30km/h is a crawl.”

“We need to also remember that often accidents involving pedestrians or involving passengers or people behind the wheel of the car are not caused always by speed. They are caused by excessive speed yes, far more than 50km/h in built-up areas.”

Mr McCormack said he would rather see people stop drink driving or get off their mobile phones.

“I would much prefer people to do that than to put in place a 30km/h speed limit which I do believe is really nanny state stuff,” he said.

If Mr McCormack pulls out, Assistant Road Safety Minister Scott Buchholz would likely attend.

The two-day road safety summit, which includes sessions with Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prince Michael of Kent, will also focus on “sustainable transport”.

The Stockholm Declaration calls on public and private organisations to purchase “safe and sustainable vehicle fleets”. It flags addressing “the connections between road safety, mental and physical health, development, education, equity, gender equality, environment and climate change”.

Mr McCormack had earlier not answered questions on whether he supported 30km/h limits, integrating road safety with climate action or if the government would purchase a “sustainable vehicle fleet”.

In October, Scott Morrison delivered a speech urging Australia to “avoid any reflex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community … And worse still, an unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy”.

Mr McCormack’s planned visit comes after the Australian Automobile Association in August warned about government inaction on the national road safety strategy. The AAA released analysis showing only nine of 33 individual safety performance indicators were “on track” to be met. Pressure is also building on the Coalition to accelerate policy settings in response to the influx of electric vehicles.

Responding to the global push to impose 30km/h speed limits and linking road safety with climate change, Anthony Albanese on Saturday said “there are a range of ways that you can lower carbon emissions including by changing the makeup of the vehicle fleet”.

“The truth is that technology is coming. The government might pretend that it’s not, but there isn’t a car manufacturer in the world that is currently undertaking research into a new internal combustion engine,” Mr Albanese said.

“All of the research is into lower emissions vehicles, that is the future. They’ll be a transition.”