The Australian Government has abandoned plans to reduce speed limits on unsigned roads after the ‘blanket approach’ was rejected by states and territory ministers across the country.
Current federal legislation dictates roads outside of built-up areas without signposts have a default speed limit of 100km/h – regardless of whether they’re sealed or not.
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts was considering reducing the 100km/h speed limit on unsigned roads to curb the road toll in regional areas.
The department ran a public consultation process for feedback on the idea of removing the 100km/h default speed limit, with submissions closing on October 27, 2025, as it considered the community response.
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Approximately 11,000 individual submissions were made to the department before the period for feedback closed.
“At the infrastructure and transport ministers’ meeting on Friday [November 21], states and territories raised concerns to a blanket approach to speed limits and reiterated their responsibility for setting speed limits in their jurisdictions,” a spokesperson for federal Transport Minister Catherine King said, as reported by the ABC.
“All ministers agreed to ensure no further work would be done to progress it.”
The move was welcomed by Cam Dumesny, the chief executive of the Western Roads Federation – a body “formed to give a strong unified voice for companies who use WA [Western Australia] roads for commercial benefit”.
“We support road safety, but the blanket approach was not appropriate,” he told radio station ABC Regional Drive WA. “Speed limits aren’t going to solve attitude problems; that is certainly a major problem.”
The now rejected plan was put forward as part of the Australian Government’s National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25, which promised to develop a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) on the move.
“Some roads outside of built-up areas, especially in regional and remote areas, may not be safe to travel on at 100km/h,” said the Department of Infrastructure’s website, explaining many roads are poorly maintained and in bad condition, increasing the risk of incident.
“Travelling at up to 100km/h on roads such as these may not be safe and will increase the risk of crashes, death and serious injuries. Reducing travel speed on these roads can help prevent the tragedy of road crashes, injuries and deaths, by setting a speed limit that is safe for drivers and people using the road.”
The department’s data claims the risk of death on rural roads is 11 time higher than in a major Australian city – with the road toll reaching a 15-year high in the 12-month period up to June 2025.
“We know if you have a head-on collision at 100 kilometres an hour, there is almost zero chance of surviving,” said the deputy director of the WA Centre for Road Safety Research, Paul Roberts.
“When it goes down 70 [km/h], you have a 90 per cent chance of surviving a head-on collision, and that’s why 80 or 90 [km/h] was a good compromise.
“It’s not safe, but it’s a hell of a lot safer than 100.”
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