Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last Monday I climbed aboard a big blue rig and joined local truck owner-drivers on a convoy rally through Rockhampton city. With horns blasting, they were protesting against the controversial Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. Today I joined the rally in Canberra. I joined Dave Duck, from Rockhampton, who is an owner-operator and is very concerned about the consequences of the RSRT. And today I stand on the floor of federal parliament in Canberra ready and eager to cast my vote to abolish this controversial tribunal once and for all. That is what I pledge to those truckies and their families back home, and only the cold, cruel hearted Labor MPs in this House would dare to stop it.

Today our coalition government, by seeking to repeal the operations of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal in this session of parliament, are moving to protect owner-drivers from being driven out of business. Our aim is to provide certainty to tens of thousands of small business owners across Australia. I thank Rockhampton locals Tony Hopkins of Hopkins Brothers Transport and Laura Francis from Francis Freighters for their perseverance in bringing this issue to the attention of politicians. The RSRT imposed a controversial fixed-rate contract order that industry groups, farmers and truck drivers say will destroy jobs and livelihoods. Following pressure from truckies and the government, the tribunal sought industry feedback to determine whether it would push the start date of this order back until 2017, but in doing so it forced mum and dad truckies to appear before an arrogant panel of tribunal members over the Easter long weekend, a holy weekend which is traditionally set aside for family activity. I condemn the head of the tribunal for such a tactless attitude. Local owner-drivers involved in these Easter hearings have described the president of the RSRT as a person of intellectual arrogance.

Given our geographic make-up and the vast distances that separate our towns and cities, much of the food, freight, fuel and fibre that moves around this great nation is transported by trucks. Truckies are the lifeblood of our nation. We cannot allow the Leader of the Labor Party, a man who wants to be Prime Minister, to let his party's mistake kill off as many as 60,000 jobs. Labor's Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal must be abolished, and it must be abolished immediately. By introducing this legislation today, the Turnbull-Joyce coalition are showing that it is the Liberal-Nationals who are listening with an open heart to mum and dad truckies—people who fear they will lose their livelihoods because of fixed contract regulations imposed by the tribunal. Our government has been listening to its country MPs, including me and Ken O'Dowd, who is sitting next to me, and that is why we are talking about this bill today.

The tribunal, set up by Labor, is a toy for the Transport Workers Union, and its fixed price contracts will have no impact on road safety. So how did it come about? Last week, one respected trucking company owner in Rockhampton sat down in my office to explain how he sees it. He said that when Julia Gillard was trying to fend off a bid from Kevin Rudd to take back the Labor prime ministership she had to seek the support of a powerful union faction, the Transport Workers Union. The trade-off was that she was forced by the union to set up this pathetic tribunal under the guise of road safety. We cannot allow this country to be controlled by union thugs.

When, last week, I joined local truckies in a protest rally against the tribunal and the unions, I was moved by their stories and their genuine fears for their livelihoods. Grown men were moved to tears by the stress of not being able to meet the demands of this farcical tribunal. These mums and dads work hard to provide for their families and provide jobs for other families in our community; it is plain wrong that a tribunal lorded over by union thugs should try to send them broke. The bills today are a test for Labor in helping to fix the mess they created and protect the jobs of down-to-earth local people. But are they up to it? Let me warn the truckies of Capricornia that a vote for Labor's candidate in Capricornia is a vote to kill off small businesses, trucking operations and jobs in the region. I am not making this up; this is factual. Richard Easey, from Easy Haul in Central Queensland, says he has already had to let drivers from his family company go because of the RSRT. He says that, coupled with the downturn in coalmining in Central Queensland, the series of destructive orders the tribunal has imposed on the industry will make business even harder. Laura Francis, who with her husband operates a trucking business called Francis Freighters, says the flow-on effect in the community is huge, with large trucking dealerships also fearing for their future. That means jobs in the truck maintenance area, including apprenticeships, are at risk. Jobs in the truck tyre supply sector are also at risk. And fewer truckies on the road will mean less fuel, so servo jobs will be hit as well.

Labor's previous legislation, which we aim to repeal today, is flawed. If they force mum and dad trucking owners out of business, they risk an entire industry. One transport industry expert predicts that, when you take into account the cost and mortgage required for a prime mover, a collapse of mum and dad operators would mean $70 billion worth of new trucks and parts would become obsolete overnight. To quote him: 'They would be useless and left to rust. That is why dealerships are also worried.' He continues by suggesting that the RSRT would not reduce accidents but in fact increase untimely deaths. He explains this by saying that, by putting truckies out of business, the owner-drivers still face paying off the bank debt they borrowed for their rigs. He said: 'This financial stress will lead to mental health issues, family stress, possible domestic violence and, in some extreme cases, suicide.' We must abolish a tribunal that risks pushing men and young fathers to commit suicide.

The Deputy Prime Minister has described the situation facing small trucking businesses as catastrophic. The National Farmers' Federation warned that:

… new minimum rates for owner drivers will drive up freight rates for smaller consignments of livestock or other rural commodities by as much as 350 percent.

Last week the President of the National Road Freighters Association, Tony Hopkins, called for a royal commission into who, why and how the tribunal came to be set up. He feared there were underlying sinister manoeuvres by the Transport Workers Union to force mum and dad drivers out of business. They would then be forced to work for large multinational freight companies as hired staff and by doing so they would be forced to join the Transport Workers Union—a union, according to reports, which has provided at least $8 million into the pockets of the Australian Labor Party.

Last week on the trucking convoy through Rockhampton, I held up a sign saying: 'I support truckies.' Today, as their representative and voice in the Australian parliament, I repeat that slogan loud and clear: I support truckies. On that note, I commend the bills today to the House to effectively abolish the controversial Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal.

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