Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I can. The national secretary of the TWU, Tony Sheldon, yesterday said this about owner-drivers in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald:

He/she speeds, drives longer than permitted, skips mandatory rest breaks, forgoes truck maintenance and might even take drugs to drive those extra hours.

Mr Sheldon thought it was appropriate to label owner-drivers as people who break the law, do not maintain their vehicles and take drugs. This is an outrageous allegation and Mr Sheldon should apologise to owner-drivers for calling them those things. Making customers pay more to owner-drivers—rates that are non-viable—so that they can no longer work does not make our roads safer. Threatening owner drivers with $54,000 fines does not make roads safer. Taking their homes and their trucks because of this pay order does not make roads safer.