John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

Road safety is a big issue in both the electorates for which I have been the member: Parkes and Calare. Dubbo, which is the centre of Parkes, is one of the big commercial centres for trucking in New South Wales. Orange, in Calare, is fast becoming that. I am talking about road safety, which is a very big issue, in relation to these amendments. The RTA in New South Wales has said that as many trucks, if not more, travel on the Newell Highway, between Parkes and Dubbo, as travel up the Pacific Highway.

I am all for road safety and the coalition is all for road safety, particularly in relation to drivers. I can tell you that in my part of the world the trucking industry prides itself on doing everything it can on road safety. We have any number of owner-drivers in my part of the world. It seems to me that these amendments are very much aimed at groups of owner-drivers or at individual owner-drivers. In Orange we also have some of the biggest privately owned trucking companies in regional New South Wales. There are also some in Dubbo, and the member for Parkes is quite able to speak himself. It is an area that I have great knowledge of.

It seems to me that the Transport Workers Union is being very well represented by these amendments. It seems to me that the Transport Workers Union might almost have written some of them.

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