House debates

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Bills

Road Safety Remuneration Bill 2011, Road Safety Remuneration (Consequential Amendments and Related Provisions) Bill 2011; Consideration in Detail

12:28 pm

Photo of Scott BuchholzScott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is a fair enough point. I can talk to the amendments with clarity, but in getting to those points it is very important to understand the mood of the industry and their position when, overwhelmingly, 75 per cent of the members of transport organisations are not supportive of this process, and rightfully so. Let us look at some of the amendments, in particular subclause 33, where it speaks to collective agreements and enterprise bargaining. Let us take the hypothetical of two truck drivers—an independent operator and someone who buys their truck from Kenworth in their local township. They are loading up at a dock from someone who buys their truck directly from the manufacturers in Europe, who, potentially, before they leave the dock, have a $50,000 advantage. Let us look at their biggest expense—fuel. One operator has the capacity to buy fuel directly from the terminals at a price cheaper than the independent guy can buy it from the service station. So, when setting these rates in the tribunals, which are spoken to in the amendments of this bill, how are they calculated? It is a win-win for one of those parties on the principle that, if it is $1,000 to do a Sydney-Melbourne run— (Time expired)

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