Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Road Safety Remuneration Repeal Bill 2016 as the member for O'Connor, and as a farmer and a client of some of the hundreds of owner-drivers in O'Connor whose family businesses would be destroyed by the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal findings. This order from the tribunal affects my electorate—all 908,000 square kilometres—more than most. The order from this tribunal creates a great deal of uncertainty for all owner-drivers, whether it be the subbies on the Goldfields, hauling general freight to mine sites; the grain truckers in the Wheatbelt; or the livestock transporters in the South West.

Having lived and worked all my life in a small regional town, I know how critical owner-drivers are to our economy, and how hard they work.    Service providers in O'Connor that support the owner-drivers sector also include tyre service shops, diesel mechanics, fuel suppliers and auto-electricians—to name a few. But equally important is the produce trucked to markets or the ports in my electorate: whether it be gold ore to the processing plant, nickel to the Esperance port, grain to Albany, livestock to the abattoir or horticultural produce to Perth.

I believe that I am in a unique position in this debate, as one of the few members in this place holding a multi-combination driver's license—you may have one yourself, Deputy Speaker Mitchell; I know you have been involved in the trucking industry.

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