Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on these road safety remuneration bills. The member for Wright spoke very interestingly about the different organisations that he has spoken to. The only people he has never spoken to are the people in the trucks—the people who get out there every day. He sits there and says, 'Well, the best thing government can do is to get their hands out of the industry's pocket.' What he does not say is that a lot of those costs are state based. Registration is not federal but state. He forgets that. I know, through my 15 years in the transport industry, just how important this legislation is. Nothing could be more important than ensuring that people get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Anyone who has been involved in the transport industry, dealing with the owner-drivers—the people who are running on the smell of an oily rag trying to scratch a living—knows just how important it is that we ensure that owner-drivers and drivers are paid fairly. What we heard clearly from the previous speaker, though, is that the opposition do not agree with a minimum rate of pay. Underlying this is a return to Work Choices. They reckon the only way that businesses can make money is to cut wages for people scratching a living for their family. They want to take fair pay away from people just so the fat cats in the transport industry can sit back and reap the rewards.

This is not just about ensuring that owner-drivers and drivers get a safe rate of pay but about ensuring their safety on our roads. It is a critical and vital issue for all Australians, including truck drivers, their families and the wider community. Sadly, as the Transport Workers Union has told us, around 330 people are killed on our roads each year. Think about that. It is an alarming statistic that almost every day a family will lose a loved one on the road when all they were doing was trying to scratch out a living. More than 1,000 people will suffer serious injuries on our roads each day in accidents involving trucks. Although the road death toll is falling, there is still more to be done. We cannot stand by and watch these accidents happen.

This bill establishes the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, whose objectives are to promote safety and fairness in the transport industry. It is that word 'fairness' that those opposite do not understand. The bills will see that truck drivers are reasonably paid for the work they do, and will get rid of the economic issues that force drivers to take unacceptable risks on the road. It is pretty easy to sit over there on that side of the House in your suit and say: 'Drivers shouldn't have to speed. They shouldn't overload their trucks, drive excessive hours or cut back on vehicle maintenance'. But the reality is that many are forced to do so in trying to make a living.

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