John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in the House today to talk about a deal that Bill Shorten and the CFMEU have cooked up to make it more expensive to use owner-operator truck drivers and to put them out of business. Yesterday, the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal failed to alter the commencement date of 4 April for this order which is biased and discriminates against owner-drivers. I am not sure how hiking up owner-driver hire costs will make the industry safer. Is it a coincidence that owner-drivers are the only ones that will cost more? Is a coincidence that owner-drivers tend not to be union members? Is it a coincidence that Shorten put together an independent tribunal that has enormous union-biased people on it? No-one will want to employee someone who is more expensive. We have until midday on 31 March to fight this, and I encourage everyone to make representations to the tribunal to stop this totally biased order. The owner-operators of Calare and I will not stand idly by and watch lives be destroyed.

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