The results of a questionnaire issued to the Labor Party, Liberal Party, The Nationals and the Greens by the ATA were released on Monday, August 16.
These results indicate that the Labor Party and the Coalition have both shown a strong commitment to building roads, with the Coalition pledging 500 new truck rest areas over the next ten years and $300 million over the next four years to rebuild regional bridges.
The Labor Party has also demonstrated its plan and timetable to develop a national truck regulator and national laws by 2012, whilst the Coalition’s commitment was much less specific with no timeframes identified.
Both parties have shown their interest in the use of safer trucks with greater capacity. The Labor Party has said it would support a responsible, staged approach to increasing the use of high productivity vehicles on appropriate roads, and the Coalition would also support further measures to encourage the use of more fuel efficient trucks.
The Greens have also demonstrated their commitment to safer roads with an approach based on the AusRAP rating system, stating that they would work to ensure that all new roads and major upgrades were designed to achieve at least a four star AusRAP safety rating, or five stars for major highways. However the Greens have also announced that they would remove the industry’s fuel tax credits and increase B-double registration charges to over $23,000.