One of Australia’s peak motoring bodies has launched a safety campaign to challenge federal election candidates to save lives.
The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) have launched the My Safety Counts campaign, which will encourage its clubs’ 9.5 million members to challenge federal election candidates to explain how their road funding promises will save lives, not just win votes.
The campaign is being launched ahead of next week’s pre-election Budget.
Australia’s motoring clubs want the next Federal Government to require relevant safety ratings to be published when major Commonwealth road funding is announced, so Australians can better understand project selection motivations.
The AusRAP safety rating system
The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) and its five-star rating system is used by every Australian state and territory to measure the safety of the roads we all drive on and how potential upgrades affect safety outcomes.
According to the AAA, around 500,000km of Australian roads have so far been star-rated using AusRAP’s engineering protocols. Yet no Australian ratings are publicly available, meaning voters can neither see whether money is going where it’s most needed, nor assess the motivation of the politicians making funding announcements.
AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley outlined how Australian voters are affected by road upgrades.
“Australian voters are paying for the road upgrades being announced, just as they have paid for the safety assessments being kept secret,” Bradley says.
“Our polling continuously shows Australians are concerned that political imperatives outweigh community safety implications when funding choices are made.”
“With our road toll increasing in ways not seen since before the introduction of mandatory seat belts, now is the time for all parties to assure motorists that their taxes are being spent wisely, and that safety is being prioritised over politics.”
The My Safety Counts campaign will offer Australians an opportunity to directly engage with candidates to ask them for evidence about announced road proposals, and their views on evidence-based funding.
Commonwealth Government data this week showed 1,292 Australians died on Australian roads throughout the 12 months to 28 February 2025.
February 2025 data from the Commonwealth’s Bureau of Infrastructure & Transport Research Economics
This follows four consecutive calendar years (2021-24) in which Australia’s road toll increased, which is a phenomenon that has not occurred in Australia since 1966.
“Australia’s motoring clubs want this campaign to improve the safety of our roads, and the integrity of how they’re funded. Baking the publication of AusRAP ratings into Australia’s opaque road funding processes will finally show Australians whether project announcements are grounded in evidence, or whether they are instead aimed at winning votes,” Bradley says.
Australian motorists can engage with the campaign via mysafetycounts.org.au