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Speaker 1: Last week we caught up with well with Simon Matthias

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Speaker 1: to speak a little bit more about the calls for

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Speaker 1: greater data sharing when it comes to some of the

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Speaker 1: issues and some of the accidents, the crashes that we

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Speaker 1: see on our roads. And joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: right now from the AANT Chief Executive Simon Matthias. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, Simon.

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Speaker 2: Hello Katie, good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Mate. Now tell me since we last spoke, there's been

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Speaker 1: some movement in this space, hasn't there?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so has Katie. So as you will call AAMT,

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Speaker 2: along with other car clubs around the country, have been

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Speaker 2: calling on state and territory governments to release data around crashes,

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Speaker 2: the roads that occur that they're occurring on, and also

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Speaker 2: enforcement data. And since then or late last week in fact,

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Speaker 2: the federal government announced that they're funding or providing twenty

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Speaker 2: one million dollars in coming to create a National Road

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Speaker 2: Safety Data Hub, which will enable state and territory governments

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Speaker 2: to provide their data to it, so in that data

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Speaker 2: can be accessed by road safety experts, other governments, and

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Speaker 2: even the public, so that you know, we've got a

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Speaker 2: clear picture on where road funding is being directed.

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Speaker 1: This seems like a real common sense approach to me, Like,

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Speaker 1: I get that it's costing money, but you know, to me,

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Speaker 1: it seems like common sense. We want to make sure

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Speaker 1: that data is shared so that then hopefully we're able

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Speaker 1: to lower the road toll and lower those incidents of crashes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and it's really important for territories because

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Speaker 2: we've got the highest road toll in the country per capita.

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Speaker 2: It's three times higher than any other state or territory.

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Speaker 2: So you know, clearly we're not seeing any real movement

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Speaker 2: in the road toll and it's really hard for that reason,

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Speaker 2: it's really hard to argue against, you know, the implementational

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Speaker 2: establishment of this kind of measure. It's a common sense move,

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Speaker 2: as you've mentioned. And yeah, we're really pleased that the

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Speaker 2: federal government have seen the light and created this. Now

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Speaker 2: what we need is for the territory government to commit

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Speaker 2: to providing the data.

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Speaker 1: So is that I mean, is that going to be forthcoming?

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Speaker 1: Do you think?

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Speaker 2: Well, we don't know. I mean, the last we've heard

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Speaker 2: from the from the territory government that they're not prepared

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Speaker 2: to provide the data, but that was before the announcement

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Speaker 2: of the hub. So the Queensland state government has committed

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Speaker 2: to providing the data. Other state governments are edging closer

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Speaker 2: to committing it. Committing to it. We just need the

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Speaker 2: territory government now to commit and do the right thing,

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Speaker 2: because I think there are some things that are above

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Speaker 2: politics out road safety is one of them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think be absurd

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Speaker 1: if we were one of the only jurisdictions not providing

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Speaker 1: that data when everybody else is.

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Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely, it's a common sense move and we hope

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Speaker 2: that we'll get an announcement from the Churchary government.

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Speaker 1: See yeah, Simon, how quickly is this sort of all

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Speaker 1: going to roll out or start to happen? Do you know?

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Speaker 2: Pretty quickly? So the federal government have announced that it

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Speaker 2: will be operational by the first of July, so we're

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Speaker 2: only talking a couple of months, and yeah, hopefully we'll

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Speaker 2: see the data start to come in. There's a bit

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Speaker 2: of work to be done because what we're asking for

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Speaker 2: is that the data the standard eye. So at the

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Speaker 2: moment there's not an apples with apples comparison on road

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Speaker 2: safety data between the states. So some states collect data

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Speaker 2: on some things, other states to collect data on other things,

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Speaker 2: and what we want is for everything to be standing.

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Speaker 2: So we've got a bigger data set so that we

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Speaker 2: and that data can be cross correlated so that you know,

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Speaker 2: we know we've got a really clear picture on road

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Speaker 2: safety issues and a clear picture why the national road

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Speaker 2: toll is increasing rather than going backwards and not forgetting

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Speaker 2: that all state and territory government signed up to the

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Speaker 2: National Road Safety Strategy which has a goal of harving

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Speaker 2: the road toll by twenty thirty and so it needs

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Speaker 2: to decrease, but in actual fact it's going the other way.

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Speaker 2: So something clearly needed to change.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you do think to yourself now that the

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Speaker 1: federal government's sort of committed to this, and you know

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Speaker 1: they've got they've got funding that's going to be provided

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Speaker 1: to it as well, you would have to think that

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory is going to come to the table,

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Speaker 1: like how could we not if we've got the highest

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Speaker 1: highest rate of road toll on our roads, highest rate

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Speaker 1: of debts on our roads per capita.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's right. I mean we've got some unique

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Speaker 2: driving conditions up here. I mean, seventy percent of our

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Speaker 2: roads are unsealed and you know, there's lots of challenges

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Speaker 2: that we face with road safety. But I think the

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Speaker 2: thing that we're kind of hoping for is that the

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Speaker 2: federal government that's where the money comes from for road funding,

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Speaker 2: they provide the states with ten billion dollars a year,

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Speaker 2: and so we are hoping that that funding is conditional

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Speaker 2: upon the states and territory is coming to the party

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Speaker 2: in terms of providing the data. So if you don't

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Speaker 2: provide the data, you don't get the funding, and I

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Speaker 2: think that's that's a pretty big stick that they've gotten.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Simon Mesias, I really appreciate your time this morning,

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Speaker 1: Chief Executive of the AA in t Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for having a chat with us, and if there's any

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Speaker 1: progress let us know.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, Well, thank you