New data from the Australian Automobile Association shows Australia’s 10-year national policy blueprint for road safety is failing to arrest a sharp rise in road deaths, which have increased by 17& since its inception four years ago.
It is calling for safety ratings on roads to be published with road funding announcements to assure Australians that road funding is being used to make roads safer, not to win votes in marginal electorates.
“Road deaths have increased in each of the past four years – a situation not seen since the 1960s and before the introduction of mandatory seat belts,” AAA managing director Michael Bradley says.
“Now is the time for all parties to assure motorists that their taxes are being spent wisely and that safety is being prioritised over short-term politics.”
When the nation’s transport ministers created the National Road Safety Strategy (2021-30), they set a target of halving road deaths by 2030.
But the AAA’s quarterly Benchmarking the Progress of the National Road Safety Strategy (2021-30) shows road deaths are up by 17% since 2020 and that 1284 people died on Australian roads in the 12 months to 31 March – up 1.2% from 1269 deaths in the previous corresponding period.
Bradley says the data showed the National Road Safety Strategy remained wildly off track, calling on politicians to agree to contextualise major road funding announcements with safety ratings produced using the protocols of the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP).
About 500,000km of Australian roads have been rated on AusRAP’s five-star safety scale, but this data is not made public. Each one-star increase in a road’s rating halves the chance of a motorist dying on that road.
“Our research consistently shows Australians fear politicians prioritise their political interests when funding roads, rather than road safety,’’ Bradley says.
“Publishing AusRAP safety ratings at the time a road project is announced will deliver the transparency that will allow Australians to make their own judgements about funding motivations.”
The AAA is pursuing its reform proposal on behalf of state-based motoring clubs with 9.5 million members through the My Safety Counts campaign, which also offers voters the opportunity to contact their local candidates to seek their views about the reform proposal.
“Revealing the AusRAP ratings at the time a road is funded will show Australians whether their taxes are being spent on projects with the most chance of saving lives,” Bradley says.
“Since we started campaigning on this issue, we’ve had commitments of support from the Liberals, Nationals, Greens and a multitude of Independent MPs.
“We’re looking forward to hearing whether the Labor Party is also prepared to back transparency and evidence-based decision making.”
Australia’s rising road toll
Key points from the Benchmarking the NRSS report released:
- The 1284 road deaths in Australia in the year to 31 March 2025 represent the worst year-to-March death toll since 2013.
- Deaths of cyclists increased by 41.9%.
- Deaths among motorcyclists increased by 5.4%.
Per capita death rates vary widely across the country. In the 12 months to 31 March 2025:
- Road deaths rose in Western Australia (up 12.0%), Tasmania (16.1%), the Northern Territory (4.3%) and the ACT (175%).
- If the NSW and Victorian per capita death rates had been matched by the other states and the Northern Territory, 196 lives could have been saved across Australia in those 12 months.
AusRAP road safety assessments cover measurement and evaluation of road risk factors, such as average daily traffic; speed limit; number of lanes in each direction; lane width; shoulder width; presence or absence of roadside barriers and rumble strips; gradient and curvature; quality of line markings; skid resistance; whether road is single or dual carriageway; and provisions for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
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