Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not seeking to argue your point but the point that I was referring to is this: we are going down a path where in the submission that was made to the inquiry the TWU strongly argued the case that there are systemic commercial and economic pressures which are resulting in poor safety outcomes, but at the same time we are introducing other bits of legislation which are going to put more commercial pressures on the transport industry. It is almost counterproductive to be doing one thing while you are doing the other thing. So that is the point I was trying to make, Mr Deputy Speaker, without wishing to argue about your ruling.

The Leader of the Nationals, in his contribution, also referred to the fact that this bill erodes the concept of independent contractors, and the amendments that we are discussing take this erosion of the status of independent contractors one step further by reducing their ability to negotiate terms and conditions that they believe are adequate. This bill and the amendments we are talking about will centralise contracts for groups of independent contractors and, in doing so, limit their opportunity to bargain. They have the potential to hamper competition and may remove the flexibility which is so important for industry. So in this way I believe the bill has the potential to make hiring groups of owner-drivers less attractive. The point I am making is that I believe that in going down this path and in tampering with an industry we run the risk of creating unintended consequences and ending up, in terms of this very important issue of safety, having some perverse outcomes and not actually achieving what we set out to achieve in the first place.

As many members on this side have indicated, while this bill has been touted as a road safety measure, we are concerned that it is more about industrial relations. We believe that existing safety efforts should be given the chance to be bedded down and that safety is a very complex issue. I do not disagree at all that fatigue undoubtedly plays a part in it, but I think that by focusing on this issue alone we might be diverting attention from the more holistic approach, which is what the dissenting report indicated, a view which was supported by the coalition members during the inquiry process.

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