John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Road Safety Remuneration Bill 2012 and the Road Safety Remuneration (Consequential Amendments and Related Provisions) Bill 2012. I back up what my leader Senator Joyce said: we are not overly concerned about this legislation. Even though we are not voting for it, it is one of the things I am certainly not going to die in a ditch over.

I was a truckie. It was a great pleasure just six months or so ago to drive a Kenworth with a friend of mine from Inverell to Canberra. I must admit that drivers are a bit spoilt today with these automatic trucks. When I started in the seventies we had 200 horsepower and they were dangerous times. There were no Jacobs brakes, no tri-axles, three decks of sheep, two decks of cattle and just bogey trailers.