Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Without trucking, the nation stops. Australia is so heavily reliant on our transport industry, particularly our truckies. They do a power of good, and they've never been under more pressure than right now with all the rules, compliance, obligations and regulations. They appreciate that they have to do the right thing, and, by and large, they do. But the onerous nature of what is expected of them is becoming all too much.

Under this government, so many of these wonderful trucking companies are going to the wall. D.J.K. Transport in New South Wales went into liquidation in August 2025 after operating for 57 years. A K G Trucking, from the same state, also entered voluntary liquidation in the same month and on the same day as Round Em Up Transport. XL Express, a national company, went under in August, after 35 years in business, leaving around 200 employees without jobs. That's 200 employees in a cost-of-living crisis. Where do they go? What do they do?

Don Watson Transport, another national company, closed its doors in June last year after 77 years of successful operation, carting much of the refrigerated transport demand. They're a logistics company with more than 300 staff, who transported cold goods between Sydney, Wodonga and Melbourne. There are over 140 trucks up for sale. Transtar Linehaul, another national company, entered administration in July 2025, leading to the company auctioning off their 38 prime movers and their 56 trailers.

Closer to home for me, in Wagga Wagga, there is Ron Crouch Transport. It, too, is a third-generation business, founded by Ron and Beverley Crouch in 1978. It started carting hay for a single client and grew into quite a powerhouse. Certainly, it's a large company for Wagga Wagga. Thankfully, a buyer has been found, and that is some relief for Geoff Crouch, the son of Ron, and indeed for the workers who are in that company. But look at other companies that went to the wall. Newnham Trucking in Queensland, Aava Logistics, Truck Repair Group in Queensland and BDS Group in Victoria all collapsed last year. And the common denominator is this: it's a Labor government that has not acknowledged that the trucking sector is in crisis. It's a Labor government that has brought about a cost-of-living crisis. It's a Labor government that does not care about small business. And this is one of the reasons why our trucking sector is in such a perilous state.

Here are some facts about trucking. Forty-seven per cent of drivers in Australia in 2024 were 55 years or older, and only 5.4 per cent of those drivers are under 25 years of age. Projections by the International Road Transport Union predict 21 per cent of Australian drivers are due to retire by 2029. That cliff is not far away. In 2024 we had 28,000 unfilled truck driving positions in Australia. It's no wonder Ron Finemore advertises so extensively. It's no wonder Peter Rodney, who has his own group, is despairing and often calls me about the number of trucks he has backed up to the fence in his yard. Allowing for the projected retirement of more than 50,000 drivers, the shortage will grow to more than 78,000 unfilled positions by 2029. The mainstream media has just cottoned on to the fact—even though I have been banging on about this for some time—that the sham contracting arrangements are doing a great disservice to our trucking industry. Under a sham contracting arrangement, you'll get an ABN. That'll be paid, but the drivers miss out on all the add-ons. Of course, that company saves the additional expense. I'm told it's reasonably widespread and that that is how some operations are able to offer cheaper prices to haul freight than other companies. There's not a level playing field, and that is a problem.

It requires, I believe, the transport minister to have a summit. We had a summit last year about productivity, and, if there's one thing we talk about when we talk about productivity, it should be trucking, because trucking enables productivity. Trucking enables goods to be transported all around Australia. And without trucking, as I said, all of that stops. The nation grinds to a halt. But what is this government doing about it? Zip. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We should be having a summit—a major gathering, a come-to-Jesus moment, if you like—for our trucking sector. And, yes, call in the unions. Let them have their say too. I'm not against that. I think what we saw when we had the productivity summit was a union talkfest—a gabfest. But I wouldn't be against the unions coming in, because they're part and parcel of this, and they might have some interesting input. I'm sure they would. But get the drivers in, young and old—mainly they'll be old, as I said before. Get a group together where the likes of Tom, Ron Finemore and Peter Rodney are all able to have their say and lay it bare on the table so that we know what the problems are, because they do know. But they will also have solutions, and I think it's incumbent upon the government to adopt those solutions because, if we don't, then all the goods that are being ferried around the nation are going to grind to a halt.

Deputy Speaker, you know who will suffer the most? It'll be the mums and dads trying to pack their kids' school lunches, trying to get the kids off to school, because out there we talk a lot about all sorts of things—the inner machinations of the parliament and whether the coalition is together and this, that and everything else. Out there in voter land, they just want to get on with their lives. They want to open the doors of their small businesses. They want to make sure their kids get to school. They want to make sure their kids get to sport. They want to make sure that they live a good existence, but they can't do it if they don't have food on the table, they can't do it if the supermarket shelves aren't filled, and they can't do it without trucking companies. Regional Australia will suffer because many of these trucking companies emanated from regional Australia, and they're all over regional Australia. They're in Albury, they're in Wagga Wagga, they're in smaller towns as well, and they're doing it hard. They're doing it tough, no thanks to this government, which has made it so very tough.

State governments have a role to play, too. I think they should be in the summit as well, because some of the regulations that they put on trucking companies need to be looked at. Maybe they're right; maybe they could be improved. But, whatever the case, we do need to look into this sham contracting. We need to get to the bottom of this sham contracting. If we don't, then those trucks that you see going up and down the highways and those trucks that you see on the byways and little country roads are going to disappear because nobody will be able to afford to run them. If Geoff Crouch can't run a successful operation, then I don't know who can. They love their companies, they love their workers and they love to see their trucks out on the road—the big rigs, the big heavy haulers, the freight movers, the people who keep this nation running. It's the Geoff Crouches and the Ron Finemores and the Peter Rodneys of the world. They love their industry and they're desperately worried about how it's going to be fixed. Looking for solutions—they've got solutions; they just need a forum through which to put their cards on the table.

Is the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government listening? I doubt it. I do. Is the government caring? I doubt it. I haven't heard anybody from the government side talking about trucking or talking about what we can do to help the transport industry. I'll stand corrected, but I would love to see somebody get up in question time and talk about the trucking industry and thank the trucking industry for what they do for our nation. I don't think anybody really knows. I think a lot of city people think that their milk juts comes from the fridge in the supermarket. It comes from a cow; it's milked. It gets put into cartons, it gets put on a truck and it gets taken to the cities. That process is all under threat. Those drivers are all at risk, and they're at risk because of sham contracting. They're at risk because the margins are too small for the trucking companies that have served this nation for decades and have done it so well and deserve the applause and the gratitude of the government—a government that, at the moment, is very unfeeling and uncaring about an industry that keeps this nation moving.