Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I very strongly support the amendments to the Land Transport Infrastructure Amendment Bill 2014 that are being proposed here. I take the point that the minister has made. We would argue that this program has been of such success that it is important to really give it an elevated status. It has already been said that the road user charges that are paid by the trucking industry are very considerable. We think that giving this particular aspect of the program—which was part of the nation-building funding, more generally—an elevated status and enshrining it within the legislation would be an act of very considerable support to the industry. Many of these aspects—many of the projects that have been covered and many of the sub-programs that are part of that program—are very much geared towards boosting the productivity of the industry and improving the safety, which in turn increases the productivity of the industry. I add my voice to the plea for the minister to retain the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. I take considerable pride in the fact that Western Australia was the first jurisdiction to introduce this legislation, because we were conscious not only of the potential impact on the lives and health of many of the truck drivers, who were reliant on heavy doses of pharmaceutical assistance to enable them to deal with the hours they were being required to drive, but also of the impacts that it would have had for the rest of the community, including impacts on their safety. It is simply unacceptable for us to continue refusing to do anything about the problem given that we know the nature of this problem so well.

I am disappointed that the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport is not listening because I wanted to ask him if he had read the reports going right back to the Howard era, including the Burning the midnight oil report promoted by Senator Ron Boswell. The reports highlight that we need to get the whole supply chain engaged in this issue. The whole supply chain must take responsibility and an important part of that is safe sustainable rates. The Western Australian conservative government did not seek to overturn the legislation when they came into government, so I would seek a response from the minister as to why he will not give this legislation a chance to prove its efficacy.

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