Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I want to make the point that my electorate depends very heavily on the trucking industry, whether it is for the agricultural sector or the mining sector, which is expanding day by day in my electorate and brings heavy machinery, such as mining equipment, into the electorate. Of course, when it comes to the transport of food to supply communities across the electorate of Maranoa, it comes in on trucks, not on trains. So we depend very heavily on the trucking sector.

I have a great deal of respect for those truck operators, whether they are private or part of a large corporation or company, because they work incredibly hard. I have family members involved in the trucking industry. I know them well and I also know how hard they are finding it to be able to secure drivers and compete against the mining sector, which pays very large salaries to people to work in the mining sector.

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