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

Yesterday I was so proud to host a roundtable here in this building with the elite of the Australian road transport industry, who were in attendance to talk about sham contracting and tax avoidance in our industry. I was very proud to be joined by the Transport Workers' Union; the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organization; the national road transport organisation; the Australian Trucking Association; the Australian Furniture Removers Association; the National Road Freighters Association; the Victorian Transport Association; the Tasmanian Transport Association; the Tasmanian transport livestockers association; Road Freight NSW; the Queensland Trucking Association; the Western Roads Federation from WA, representing also the Northern Territory Road Transport Association; and the South Australian Road Transport Association. Every square inch of this magnificent nation was represented in that room yesterday; 47 sectors of the road transport industry were represented in that room yesterday and had the ability to talk with ministers and bureaucrats at ATO, Border Force, DEWR and fair work.

In this magnificent industry, which represents nearly nine per cent of GDP in this nation and employs over 640,000 direct employees, we have a new pox that has crept into the industry. It is sham contracting, where we have drivers being exploited by rogue employers and crooked accountants being very creative, bending the laws and demanding Australian business numbers or ACNs for employees and paying them minimum rates with absolutely no protections, workers compensation, annual leave, sick leave, superannuation—none of that stuff. What makes it even worse—and every single senator needs to get engaged in this—is that the drivers are fooling themselves thinking $40 an hour is great because they're not paying tax. How much, as a nation, are we losing out?