I am delighted to announce today that the Australian Government will provide $40 million over the next four years to increase the number of school buses equipped with seat belts for students in rural and regional areas.
This funding will be used to provide subsidies of up to $25,000 a bus, and will be paid directly to private rural and regional bus operators.
This new initiative will see seat belts installed in at least 375 school buses in non-metropolitan areas each year, with the Commonwealth ultimately funding seat belts in at least 1500 regional school buses.
Through this initiative, seat belts would be provided for 7.5 million school student bus trips a year, resulting in a far safer travelling environment for our school children and providing peace of mind for rural and regional families.
School buses in rural and regional areas often travel long distances at high speeds underlining the added value of seat belts to improve the safety of journeys to and from school.
The seat belts can be installed in new buses or retro-fitted to existing fleets. While this initiative will provide direct practical assistance, I do remain concerned that a number of State-Territory Labor Governments have failed in their duty to ensure that children are safe by requiring seat belts on their school buses.
Ensuring that seats belts are provided on school buses is firmly a state and territory responsibility and while some have taken varying action, the most populous states - New South Wales and Victoria - have not. This is unacceptable. The onus is now on state and territory governments to take measures of their own to fit their school bus fleets with seat belts.