The deadline to have a say on the proposed reduction of speed limits on unsigned roads has been quietly extended after howls of industry protest.
At present the default limits are 50km/h in built-up areas and 100km/h in the country and outback regions.
The government has released a consultation paper on a proposal to reduce the upper limit to 80km/h on sealed roads and 70km/h on unsealed roads. The deadline for feedback was originally October 27 but has now been pushed back to November 10.
“At face value, it sounds like a safety measure. But the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) has made it clear: reducing default speeds will harm productivity, compromise animal welfare, and disguise the real issue – chronic under-investment in rural roads,” said ALRTA Executive Director Anthony Boyle.
“For regional operators, speed limits directly shape fatigue management, delivery windows, and daily productivity.
“Even a modest reduction of 7 km/h equates to an additional 45–60 minutes on a typical full-day run — enough to push drivers into mandated rest breaks or late-night driving under the Heavy Vehicle National Law.”
Western Roads Federation (WRF) CEO Cam Dumesny said the WA and NT would be most impacted as 70 per cent of those networks are unsealed.
In a note to WRF members he also pointed out that the consultation report states:
“The impacts of reducing default speed limits on default roads outside of built-up areas are complex to assess due to limitations in existing road safety datasets.
“In particular, there is no comprehensive data on vehicle-kilometres travelled or the proportion of fatal and serious injury crashes that occur on roads outside of built- up areas with default speed limits.”
Boyle said a speed reduction is the “wrong tool for the job”.
“Reducing default open-road speeds does nothing to fix the underlying cause of rural road trauma – poor road condition and underfunded maintenance,” he said.
Rural operators already face deteriorating pavements, narrow shoulders, and limited overtaking lanes.
Instead of slowing down the very operators keeping regional Australia supplied, Boyle said governments should be investing in practical safety improvements such as sealed shoulders and improved drainage, better line marking and more overtaking opportunities.
“This looks like a Clayton’s consultation,” said Regional Development Shadow Minister, Dr Anne Webster.
“The government appears to want to bring regional Australia to a grinding halt.
“Labor’s speed limit proposal remains an outrageous, lazy solution to a serious issue facing cars and trucks across the country. As I have said all along, ‘how about they just fix the bloody roads?’”