SENATOR THE HON BRIDGET MCKENZIE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEADER OF THE NATIONALS IN THE SENATE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA
MEDIA RELEASE
24 November 2025
The Albanese Labor Government has been forced into an embarrassing backdown on its ill-conceived plan to slash speed limits on regional roads to 70 km/h – a proposal that never should have seen the light of day.
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Senator Bridget McKenzie, said the decision to quietly drop the policy is an admission that Labor has failed to address the real issue: fixing dangerous, crumbling regional roads.
“Regional communities, local councils, and Liberal and National MPs mounted a powerful grassroots campaign against Labor’s reckless plan – and common sense has finally prevailed,” Senator McKenzie said.
“Even Labor MPs with experience in the transport sector acknowledged this was a badly conceived proposal.
“It should never have taken this long. The Government wasted months pushing a policy that punished regional motorists instead of repairing the roads that endanger them.”
Senator McKenzie said the Government’s backdown follows overwhelming public opposition, including more than 11,000 submissions.
“Labor ignored communities calling for safer roads through investment, not slower speed limits. Cutting speed limits was a lazy substitute for doing the hard work,” she said.
The backdown comes as Australia faces a worsening road-safety crisis:
- 1,361 Australians lost their lives on the road in the past year – a 6.9 per cent increase.
- Two-thirds of those fatalities occurred in regional Australia.
- October recorded the worst monthly toll in five years, with fatalities 14.9 per cent above average.
“Improving productivity means getting people and goods to their destinations quickly and efficiently. This would have been a retrograde step for our regional economies.
“So, instead of fixing roads, Labor has cancelled, cut or delayed more than $30 billion worth of infrastructure projects and abolished programs designed to keep regional roads safe – including Roads of Strategic Importance, Bridges Renewal, and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program,” Senator McKenzie said.
“Dropping the speed-limit plan is a victory for regional Australians and the MPs who stood up for them – but road safety won’t improve until the Albanese Government invests in the roads themselves.”
Rather than make the decision itself, the Minister for Transport, Catherine King Government convened a meeting of the country’s state and territory road ministers last week, to make the decision for her.
“Regional Australia came out in force opposed to Labor’s plan to cut speed limits down to 70 kilometres per hour and instead implored the Government to just get on with the task of making roads safer by fixing them and filling the potholes,” Senator McKenzie said.