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

I rise for my two minutes to just make a comment. I am in receipt of a press release from a very decent human being, Mr Michael McCormack, the member for Riverina. I say that with the greatest of respect. Mr McCormack has come out and said:

Australia will grind to a halt if we lose trucks.

I just want to say to Mr McCormack: 'Congratulations, Mr McCormack! Welcome to the party. Great to have you on the transport family tree. Hooray!' It took me years and years and years in opposition to get through to Mr McCormack, saying: 'Mr McCormack, we really to need to shine a very bright light in every dark corner of the transport industry to show all the bad things that are going on. Margins are being squashed, the top of the supply chain is killing us, ABNs are killing us. Can I get your help as the minister?' I said I was going to move a private senator's bill to do a Senate inquiry into the road transport industry.

Unfortunately, Mr McCormack—I did say he is a very decent person—did not support me. In fact, I brought it to this chamber when I was on that side of the chamber. I put it on the floor. I sought support from the Australian Labor Party—tick. The Greens, thank you very much—tick. All the crossbench—there were a lot more on the crossbench than we have now—ticked off on it and said: 'Go for it, Glenn. Why don't we do that?' Guess what Mr McCormack did. You're not going to believe this. He instructed every member of the coalition to vote against Sterle's private member's bill to actually listen to the road transport industry and say: 'What are your issues? How can we help? You're nine per cent of GDP.' We all love truckies. Yeah, right! As long as you can get a photo in a fluorescent vest in a truck with some bling on it, you love truckies. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen? I sincerely welcome Mr McCormack, and I really hope he has a whisper to his shadow spokesperson and gets her in the tent to start loving the trucking industry.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're now moving to question time.