Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

It is incredibly important that I express my views on this, and my views are also reflecting the views expressed overwhelmingly by the people who have come down to Canberra—away from their work and away from their capacity to go out and earn a dollar—because they know full well this is about their livelihood and their future.

I do not have to explain my position again because my position is the same as it was at four past 10 on 20 March 2012 when I voted against this, and my position remains the same. I am going to do my very best today to be part of a process of making sure that we repeal this and get rid of this tribunal. Let's not for one second believe that we do not have a concern about safety. Of course we do. This is not about safety. This is what has happened to it: it has created a funnel to take owner-drivers out of work and to put other people in their jobs. Good luck to and God bless the Transport Workers Union—good on them! But it is not their right to be a part of a process that drives other people out of work, and that is what is happening here.

The people we saw at the front of this building today, and the people who I saw at the rally in Tamworth are good people—decent people. They are law-abiding citizens. They are people trying to make a buck—people who are trying to make sure that they have the capacity to pay for their families and to give themselves an opportunity, an opportunity that is available to someone who might not have had the best education and who might not have had the capacity to be born as lucky as others or with the wealth of others. But they have decided to try to get ahead in life by the sweat of their own brow.

We need to support that, because that is the dream that so many Australians hold. It is epitomised by what you see on the road when you see trucks moving. When I see trucks moving I know that it is the sound of an economy moving. It is the sound of produce moving—the sound of cattle moving around, sheep moving around, cotton moving around, coal moving around and iron ore moving around. It is produce going into the supermarkets for people to buy. It is the sound of an economy, and we have to make sure that that sound of an economy keeps going.

This is not just about the mum-and-dad operators, who are overwhelmingly the owner-drivers—the dad in the rig and the mum looking after the books. As an accountant, I do not have a heavy-vehicle licence but my wife does.

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