Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with truck drivers from around Australia who had driven to Canberra to have their voices heard. Again this morning I had the opportunity to meet with owner-drivers who had travelled from around Australia to have their voices heard in the nation's capital. Australians should not have to drive thousands of kilometres and spend thousands of dollars of their own money to fight for their jobs. These are not paid protesters; these are Australian mums and dads who are passionate about their industry and passionate about the future of our nation, and they are being told by the Australian Labor Party, the Greens and some independents that they are not worthy of taking to the roads and continuing to provide the enormous service they provide to our community.

The member for Gorton, in his contribution, would have us believe that the Prime Minister is acting on some sort of whim or that he does not like an individual decision of the RSRT. But the member for Gorton conveniently ignores the hundreds of people who drove to Canberra yesterday and are on the front lawns here again this morning. He conveniently ignores the long list of organisations—and I will quote from some of them—who oppose the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. There is Toll Holdings, who say:

… we don't believe the RSRT is the best way to improve safety for either big or small operators.

The Australian Trucking Association says:

The ATA has been urging the Government to repeal the—

Road Safety Remuneration Act 2012—

and abolish the Tribunal as a matter of urgency …

The Livestock and Rural Transport Association of Western Australia has said, 'Unfortunately, many small family operations will find it increasingly difficult to survive in this environment.' NatRoad has said:

These effects will be disproportionately felt in rural and regional areas …

The National Road Transport Association has demanded the Turnbull government immediately withdraw this ill-conceived order.

This is not a Prime Minister acting on a whim or a government making it up as it goes along. This is a government responding to legitimate concerns of owner-drivers throughout Australia who, right now, fear being forced out of work, forced out of their industry and unable to meet their family commitments. The member for Gorton and I agree on one thing: too many people die on our roads. But this tribunal is simply not the answer. Bizarrely—and I think this is the one particular point that bells the cat on this issue—the original legislation for this tribunal does not even sit in the transport portfolio, which has responsibility for road safety around our nation. It sits within the employment portfolio. It sits within industrial relations. This was never about road safety.

As someone who came to this place without a great deal of interest in party political games, I am not someone who gets too much involved in the political cut and thrust. I try to build consensus. I try to get things done within my community and work with either side wherever possible. Sometimes you just have to you pick a side on an issue like this. As a regional MP and as a transport minister, I am proudly on the side of small business owners. The Liberal and National MPs from around Australia gathered here today cannot wait to come to the chamber and vote to keep these good people in business in the future. We want to keep Australia moving. We want them to play their role in keeping Australia moving. We want to vote to protect these small business people. It remains to be seen whether Labor, the Greens and some Independents actually want to sack them.

Over the past few weeks I have been contacted by dozens of owner-drivers, many of those in Gippsland. They are concerned. They have many concerns, but I will try to cut right down to the point of their major concern. They feel the RSRT order is discriminatory, and they are right. They feel it is confusing and too complex in the time frames they were given. Keep in mind that these are largely mum and dad operations. They do not have a human resources department. They do not have a legal department. They do not have an accounting department. They do not have the capacity within their small organisations to comply with increasingly complex legislation. This order from the RSRT specifically singles out owner-drivers for treatment that no-one else in the industry cops. In the past month this debate has heated up in the public sphere. No-one from the other side has even been willing to attempt to justify why this RSRT order, this Labor tribunal, singles out owner-drivers in the way it does.

Let's just remember who these people are. These are our local owner-drivers in small communities like Gippsland. They have lease payments to make on their trucks. They are significant investments. These are small business people by any definition. More than likely they also have a mortgage to pay, kids to get to school and all sorts of things we all deal with on a daily basis. These are small business people.

It is not just about them as truck drivers; there is a whole supply chain which reverberates throughout regional communities in particular. If you have a small regional operator in a town like Murchison, for example, that driver more than likely buys his tyres locally. He more than likely purchases his fuel before he heads off on the road. He probably uses local mechanics. He probably got a sign-writer to help get his rig set up in the first place. They are a significant part of their local community. I am proud to stand with them here today and vote with them to make sure they continue to have an important role in the Australian transport sector.

As someone who comes from the regions, like all of my National Party colleagues—and I note that the Deputy Prime Minister is here today as well; he spoke very passionately in favour of small business owners yesterday at the rally here in Canberra—I know how important the trucking industry is to our nation and that the owner-drivers are the backbone of the sector. As the transport minister I also know that the Australian government's move to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal is necessary and it is vital to do this so that these mum and dad truck operators can continue to be in business in the future.

There have been two damning reviews into this tribunal that have shown that the tribunal has not been effective in making the industry fairer or safer, despite being in operation for four years. In life, we all make mistakes. It is how you respond to those mistakes that matters. The Labor Party made a mistake by introducing this tribunal. It was under enormous pressure from the Transport Workers Union and it buckled under that pressure. But, having made that mistake, I appeal to those opposite to help us clean up the mess, because this tribunal has nothing to do with road safety.

Submissions to the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal from small business operators did not change the tribunal's decision to mandate this unfair pay order on only one sector of the industry. The tribunal has refused to pay any heed to the owner-drivers who say that the road safety remuneration system risks harming their businesses without doing anything to improve the safety of the industry.

Safety is at the heart of the government's approach to transport. I acknowledge the former speaker's passionate references to the number of people who die in the heavy vehicle sector and on our roads. Tragically, it is true that the road transport industry is one of the most dangerous industries in Australia, with a fatality rate over 12 times the average rate for all industries. But the reasons behind road accidents are complicated. They are often tragic. But the facts tell us that targeted and practical initiatives are what make the biggest impact on reducing accidents, not tribunal rulings.

An important point is that a recent study has found in respect of heavy vehicle fatalities that in 84 per cent of cases the heavy vehicle driver was not at fault. That is an important point as we debate the RSRT. In 84 per cent of cases the heavy vehicle driver was simply not at fault in the accident. Although there has been a steady and encouraging decline in road deaths involving heavy vehicles in recent times, we all—members on both sides—accept and acknowledge that one death is one death too many and one serious injury is one serious injury too many. That is why this government wants to prioritise its efforts in a way that will lead to genuine road safety outcomes for the heavy vehicle industry and the broader community. As I said, it has been proven time and again that pragmatic, practical and targeted initiatives will have the most impact on road safety, not a ruling from a tribunal.

Assuming that the legislation successfully passes the House of Representatives and the Senate over the course of this week, the government wants to pursue a reallocation of the funding from the RSRT to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to expedite a number of critical initiatives to improve the safety of the heavy vehicle industry. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator already has a comprehensive safety work program underway, including such things as: utilising technology to facilitate fatigue management; programs which target roadworthiness, including a baseline survey of 9,000 vehicles to test the health of the vehicle fleet around the nation; and consistent inspections and enforcement across Australia.

I am the first to acknowledge in this place that there is more to be done in relation to road safety. Our work on road safety is never-ending at a Commonwealth level, at a state level, at a local community and, absolutely, at the household level when we get behind the wheels of our cars or our trucks. While we are proposing to the state ministers that funding from the scrapping of the tribunal can be used to strengthen our technology and reprioritise the safety measures that will work on the roadside, there are a range of initiatives that I will bring to the various state ministers in the coming weeks to seek their support on.

In addition to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator's work, which, I might add, has the support of industry, the Commonwealth has been investing record amounts in infrastructure, because we understand that providing safer roads is part of the equation. It is a complex equation. It is about safer roads, safer drivers and providing an environment where people take responsibility for their own actions. We will be working with our state colleagues in continuing to roll out our record investment in safer roads and, along with better support of the NHVR, the government is working to achieve real safety outcomes for the heavy vehicle sector and the broader community.

I want to mention a couple more things in relation to safety. I have found it appalling and contemptible that, in recent weeks, the Transport Workers Union has rushed to the media on every single occasion, every time, there has been an accident involving a heavy vehicle and a fatality and, somehow, tried to link that tragic event with the RSRT. On the weekend, we had the horror, across our nation, of 10 people dying in accidents involving heavy vehicles. And again today we have the TWU putting out a press release somehow trying to link those two events—in this case, there were three accidents. The causes of those accidents are not known. Quite rightly, there will be a full investigation into the causes of those accidents. In at least one of those accidents, the immediate reports from the scene were that a car pulled out in front of a B-double truck. I do not know what the TWU thinks it is doing by seeking to blame drivers in circumstances where the evidence has not yet been given to a coroner or anyone else. I just appeal to the TWU: if you want to have a rational debate on this issue, end the contemptible and disgraceful behaviour of seeking to politicise the road toll in the manner in which you have in recent weeks; stop putting out those press releases until you know the facts of the accidents.

Everyone cares about road safety. We were down there this morning on the lawns of Parliament House and there were families there. Those people who were there, the owner-drivers, care about safety for an obvious reason: they want to get home alive. They want to get home and get on with their lives and do their jobs. That is why we have the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator working for the industry. That is why there is enforcement of fatigue management, why there are police on the road enforcing speed limits, why there are roadworthy checks and why the government—and I acknowledge that former ministers Mr Truss and Mr Albanese are here, and the current minister—invested in road funding in black spots and investing in new rest areas for the heavy vehicle sector. It is a complex equation. It is about safer drivers, safer roads and all of us working together as a community.

But the point I made earlier and the point I want to emphasise again is this tragic loss of life on our roads. It is a tragic fact that it is normally not the heavy vehicle driver at fault. We need to remind ourselves of that as we have this debate. Yes, the heavy vehicle industry has a safety problem in terms of the number of people who do not make it home alive or who make it home but with serious injuries, but in most cases—up to 84 per cent of the cases—it is not the heavy vehicle driver who has caused the accident to occur in the first place.

I am proud to represent the National Party and a coalition which has a Prime Minister, in Malcolm Turnbull, a Deputy Prime Minister, in Barnaby Joyce, and an employment minister, in Michaela Cash, who were all out there yesterday talking to the owner-drivers. They spoke about the importance of small business; the important job they do, as mums and dads, out there every day on our roads keeping our country moving. They all said that owner-drivers were the backbone of the transport sector. I believe them and I support them in their efforts. I urge the Labor Party, the Greens and the Independents to have another look at this legislation, to acknowledge that you made a mistake by introducing this tribunal, which has absolutely nothing to do with road safety. I urge those opposite to get on with the job of helping us clean up the mess that they left behind and help us get Australia moving again.

See this speech in context