It has been talked about and criticised across regional Australia for several weeks now and finally common sense has prevailed, the proposed policy of reducing speed limits from 100km/h to as low as 70km/h on regional roads has been quietly dropped by the Federal Government.

The proposal was raised in a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts and has drawn negative reactions from not only the opposition, State Government, councils and transport bodies but the public in general after media attention alerted regional communities to the proposal.

Labelled by the opposition as an outrageous and lazy solution to poor road conditions bought about through a lack of funding to maintain and repair the nation’s regional road network.

The original deadline for submissions on the policy was only 28 days and not the customary 40 days, which was revised after Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Dr Anne Webster, called for an extension.

Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Jamie Chaffey said that it was an embarring backflip on an ill-conceived plan and an admission that Labor has failed to address the real issue of fixing dangerous, crumbling regional roads.

“This plan was a diversion from the fact that road funding has fallen a long way behind what is needed to maintain regional roads,” Mr Chaffey said.

“Safety issues cannot be addressed by asking people to slow down to drive around potholes.

“Regional communities, local councils, and Liberal and National MPs have told the Albanese Labor Government in no uncertain terms they do not want this plan, and common sense has finally prevailed.

“This was a ridiculous plan, and the Labor Government has wasted months pushing a policy that punished regional motorists instead of repairing the roads that endanger them.”

The impact of the reduced speed limits was seen as a one size fits all solution and did not take into consideration factors such as lost productivity and driver fatigue attributed to longer drive times.

Rural communities already talk about the tyranny of distance and how isolating this can feel, the proposed speed limit reduction would exasperate this situation.

Mr Chaffey said the Government’s backdown follows overwhelming public opposition, including more than 11,000 submissions rejecting Labor’s proposal.

“Cutting speed limits would have been a lazy substitute for real road investment,” he said. “The amount of necessary funding that has been knocked back through Disaster Recovery

"Funding Arrangements in the past three to four years is staggering at about $150 million. Councils cannot meet these enormous costs, and they should not be expected to.”

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.

“Axing the speed-limit plan is a victory for regional Australia, but road safety won’t improve until the Albanese Government invests in the roads themselves. It’s time they got on with the task of making roads safer by fixing them and filling the potholes,” Mr Chaffey said.