Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will repeat it for a third time for those opposite: our road networks are a workplace—just like this workplace or any other workplace—and it is important that all of us ensure that workplace is just as safe as any other. Statistics from 2012 show that road transport workers are 15 times more likely than any other worker to be killed at work. If this was a ratio that existed in a childcare centre, in a university or in any other industry there would be outrage and radical reform. Yet, because this is on our roads—because it is a hidden workplace, which many do not see as a workplace—it is not being addressed adequately.

That is one of the reasons the previous government worked with the industry—not just with the Transport Workers Union, but with the industry—to introduce the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. Remuneration related pressures—particularly payment by results—and low pay rates force drivers to drive while fatigued, skip breaks, speed, overload and undertake other dangerous behaviours. Drivers quite often reported being under pressure from clients: clients are putting pressure on drivers to get to their destination more quickly than is safe. Economically powerful industry clients have commercial influence, and they demand cheaper and more efficient contracts from transport companies. Quite frankly, some of the contracts these drivers are being forced to drive are simply unsafe from the beginning. That is why there is a need for such a tribunal in our trucking industry.

Honourable members interjecting—

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