Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good on you, Senator Scarr! There's nothing like giving Cleanaway a good industrial tap on the nose. They deserve it. But this weekend there's something bigger happening in town and happening around Australia.

On Saturday 5 August it is the transform reform convoys round the nation. There are going to be hundreds and hundreds of trucks descending on Canberra. How do I know? Because I'm going to be waiting for them. I can't wait for them to pop up. We're having convoys in very state of Australia. The Transport Workers Union and the National Road Freight Association have joined together to say enough is enough and to highlight the inadequacies of the road transport industry. They're bringing the message to Canberra on Saturday. Senator Lambie, if you're here in Canberra, I'll come around and I'll piggyback you there, because the boys and girls would love to meet you.

We're going to be having convoys in every city—Adelaide; Melbourne; Canberra, as you know, they're the ones coming down from Sydney; Brisbane; Cairns; Darwin. This is an absolutely huge day. More than three hundred and fifty trucks have registered to drive from Goulburn to here on Saturday. That is an absolute mean feat! Remember, a lot of these trucks are still working. A lot of these drivers will be coming in from interstate. They'll be coming in from bush runs. Not the ones happening in Perth and Melbourne and every other capital city, but these are dedicated New South Welshmen and women who have said they want to put the extra fuel in their trucks. That's a big cost. They're prepared to drive from Sydney to meet in Goulburn to come to Canberra to deliver the message: transport reform now. The norm cannot go on. The deaths on our roads and the insolvencies—no longer is this part of business. They are desperately clinging and looking forward to Minister Burke putting in the next tranche of industrial relations where transport will have it's own section. That will also target the gig economy and the shocking, terrible people that operate on those platforms.