Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just heard the member for Forrest, and the point of the matter is that the Regional Development Australia funding process is opposed hand over fist by the coalition. The roads funding which she alluded to in her speech is dealt with in the nation building and the budget processes. But those opposite have voted against every road-funding project in South-East Queensland in the last term of parliament—everything from the Ipswich Motorway to the Blacksoil Interchange. They did not support the funding for that, for the nation building roads or for the Warrego Highway funding. The member for Forrest can talk about road funding, but the coalition is opposed to it.

We have doubled the road funding that is so important to the trucking industry in South-East Queensland; $8.5 billion in road, rail and port infrastructure is more than double what the previous coalition government contributed. One of the things about Australian politics is that it behoves Labor governments to make amendments to a seamless national economy: to get rid of the oddities and the stupid things that we see in terms of federation in this country. There is the eccentricity of the dingo fence, which provides such an embarrassment and an obstacle to a seamless economy. The federal minister for transport and infrastructure should actually be commended for the work he has done.

In the last couple of years I attended the Australian Trucking Association meeting at the Gold Coast, where I represented the minister. One of the things said over lunch in private discussions that I had was about the trouble that the Australian Trucking Association had with bureaucracy, red tape and difficulties in going between Queensland and New South Wales. I have five meat works in my electorate in my home state of Queensland—and, as the member for Page said, there is a difference between how many cattle you can put on a truck in Queensland and how many you can put on a truck in New South Wales. I know from speaking to meat works, farmers and people in the trucking industry in my area how important this legislation will be and how important this COAG process will be. If you have cattle in Queensland—66 cattle on a truck—and you get to the New South Wales border, where you are only allowed 60, you have to offload the beasts. These are stupid and really ridiculous differences in regulations between states. Whether it comes to business names, to a national competition policy, to national consumer and competition situations or to trade practices legislation in the 1970s under the Whitlam government, it behoves a Labor government always to support business and small business in this economy and to support the operation of the national economy. The Australian Trucking Association is not primarily made up of really big players, such as Linfox and the other big trucking associations; its members are often owner-operators. We cannot get produce—whether it is cattle, coal, food or clothing—across the country without the trucking association and the trucks.

One of the saddest things that I have seen in my time as a federal member was dealing with Lights on the Hill, the memorial in Gatton, which used to be in my electorate and is now in the electorate of Wright. I had dealings with Kathy White; Garry, her husband; Dionne, her daughter; and all those people associated with the Australian Trucking Association, and the coach drivers as well. The road deaths of the people commemorated by the memorial are such a tragedy.

One of the things about this motion moved by the member for Makin is how he has stressed the importance of the road transport industry to the Australian economy—and it is important. We cannot get that produce and those things to the markets—you cannot take things from the Brisbane Valley and the Lockyer Valley to the markets at Rocklea—without trucks run by owner-operators. You see big entities like Nolan's in the Lockyer Valley, for example, but you also see others who run trucks.

We are making a big difference here, and this will boost the national economy by $30 billion in the next 20 years. Cutting red tape will make a difference, and those opposite have constantly frustrated us. Even today, with a historic agreement made between Labor and Liberal governments at different levels, those opposite still have to politicise this. They cannot accept that Labor governments have a legitimate right to exist and to reform. We are reforming the economy. This is a very, very important measure that will improve efficiency, effectiveness and productivity in the economy. It will make a big difference to safety. It will also make a big difference to time, taking people off the road. It will make a big difference when people cross borders, because sitting there at the borders doing paperwork and red tape and dealing with those issues makes a difference to the lives of people. I support the motion. (Time expired)

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