Dumped Turnbull government minster Darren Chester has denounced a lack of national leadership on curbing the road toll and regrets not being more "aggressive" on road safety during his time in the infrastructure and transport portfolio.
The Victorian Nationals MP also chastised state governments and federal bureaucrats for a "timid" approach to curbing the road carnage.
His comments follow a Fairfax Media report on Thursday in which government expert Dr John Crozier declared the national black spot program a "Band-aid" road safety solution that should be scrapped, and claimed inertia by successive federal governments was contributing to a rising number of road deaths.
Mr Chester lost the infrastructure and transport portfolio to Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce in a Turnbull government reshuffle last month, after 20 months in the job.
In September last year he announced an independent inquiry, co-chaired by Dr Crozier, into the national road safety strategy after road crash deaths increased over the previous two years, reversing 40 years of improvements.
Mr Chester said he ordered the review because "I was frustrated that there wasn't enough action being taken to implement all the key recommendations of that strategy", which aims to reduce the annual numbers of deaths and serious injuries on Australian roads by at least 30 per cent between 2011 and 2020.
"Our state ministers and our federal bureaucrats are too timid in their response to road safety and I encouraged them to take a bolder outlook and more innovative approaches, because too many people are being killed and injured on our roads," Mr Chester said.
Asked whether his and previous federal governments should also shoulder blame, Mr Chester conceded a "lack of a national focus over 10 or 20 years".
"If I had my time again as minister for infrastructure and transport I would be more aggressive in my efforts on road safety. Notwithstanding that I had made it a personal priority, I didn't achieve the ... transformation I was hoping for," he said.
Mr Chester echoed Dr Crozier's call for better harmonisation of laws across states, and his criticism of NSW for refusing to target cars and light vehicles with point-to-point speed cameras.
He accused the Berejiklian government of "not wanting to make politically unpopular decisions ... yet we know speed is a major killer on regional roads."
Among his "unfinished business" Mr Chester cited work to encourage motorists to buy the safest vehicle they could afford, and withholding or providing extra funding to states to "incentivise good practice" on road safety.
Labor's infrastructure and transport spokesman Anthony Albanese on Friday called on the government to act urgently on road safety.
Mr Albanese said $100 million was allocated to the black spot program in the 2016-17 budget, of which just $25 million had been spent.
"It's not good enough for Barnaby Joyce to put out the odd thought bubble. He needs to actually get the transport ministers and people with authority and get that process underway of reversing the worrying trend that's out there when it comes to road safety," Mr Albanese said.
A spokesman for Mr Joyce challenged Mr Albanese to stipulate how much funding Bill Shorten and Labor were promising to the Blackspot program.
"Shorten and Labor cannot put a dollar figure on Labor's commitment because there is no commitment from them."
