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

I am happy to do that, Deputy Speaker. Proposed clause 33(1) refers to groups of owner-drivers who make an agreement for the provision of specified road transport services. Are these not simply the dreaded AWAs, only sponsored by unions, sponsored by government and sponsored by those who will have the job of signing off on these things? The only difference is that the minister has to agree, as do the union, I assume, and the tribunal itself.

Given that the people I am talking about, the owner-drivers and the large companies, the large privately owned companies in particular, already take every care that they can in relation to driver safety, road safety and the whole gambit of it, I wonder what these amendments are actually aimed at doing, apart from keeping the Transport Workers Union happy and, pretty much, proclaiming the things that it wants rather than those things that are dedicated to road safety.

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