Revenue Raising Goes Into Overdrive With Speed Limits Slashed to 40km/h and 30 New Cameras
Police Minister Dan Cregan pretending the new revenue-raising measures are really about road safety.
As the incumbent Labor Party attempts to cover for its corruption, waste and incompetence, it has followed in the footsteps of its Liberal predecessors.
It is doing what governments do best: Expanding their ability to take money from your pocket, without providing any useful goods or services in return.
A number of Adelaide’s arterial roads will see 40km/h zones enforced around schools, and 30 new speed cameras to be installed over the next four years.
On Sunday, Treasurer Stephen Mullighan and Police Minister Dan Cregan announced an $80.1m road safety funding boost at Marryatville High School – where, last year, two students were seriously injured after being struck by a truck that allegedly ran a red light – something that a 40 km/h speed limit and speed camera would have done nothing to prevent.
As part of the package, speed limits will be reduced to 40km/h at a number of “priority locations” where schools sit on major roads.
Military Rd, Port Wakefield Rd, Lonsdale Hwy/Ocean Blvd, the Port River Expressway and Greenhill Rd have been highlighted as potential sites for changes to be enforced.
The new limits will apply on weekdays, during school drop-off and pick-up times, but not on weekends, school holidays and public holidays.
They do not replace existing 25km/h school zones on local streets.
More than $2.5m will go towards new electronic speed limit signs at those locations where new limits will apply, with locations to be determined by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport in consultation with SA Police.
Cregan said the limits to come into effect from 2025 to 2026.
$38.7m will also be allocated to install 30 new speed cameras across the state over the next four years, with 12 additional red light speed cameras in 2024-25 and three new point-to-point cameras in 2025-26.
Mullighan brushed off suggestions the new cameras were a revenue-raising exercise, even though that’s exactly what they are. It gets a bit old when these measures come in around the same time as unimpressive budget announcements and yet our disingenuous politicians insist revenue-raising is not the motive.
Mullighan said the government made no apologies for clamping down on dangerous and irresponsible drivers, which is code for “we make no apologies from ripping off more money from safe drivers under the guise of road safety”.
He said all funds from the state’s speed and mobile phone detection cameras were returned to the Community Road Safety Fund.
Sure. Just like the fraction of Victims of Crime funds that ends up going to actual Victims of Crime.
“The number of lives lost on our roads is devastating and, far too often, entirely preventable,” Mullighan said.
“We put these (cameras) in to send a clear message to motorists that we need them to slow down on the roads and we need them to pay more attention, and that’s particularly the case when it comes to our schools.”
“It’s entirely unacceptable to have motorists speeding past schools, especially at pick-up and drop-off times.”
Despite all-time high numbers of speed cameras, last year South Australia experienced its highest road toll in years. Mullighan did not say how more useless speed cameras would magically start reducing the road toll.
Mullighan also did not say how decreasing speed limits at schools would reduce the overwhelming majority of fatalities which occur nowhere near schools.
We do know, however, that this will help the government raise more money by adding extra “ha ha gotcha!” locations and an extra layer of confusion to unsuspecting motorists.
Source
Speed limits dropped to 40km/h and 30 new cameras in major $80.1m state budget boost. The Advertiser.
