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

There is one issue that the previous speaker, the member for Parkes, forgot to address. In the back load, when you take on that cheaper load to cover the fuel, you are undercutting another truck driver. Taking on the cheaper load means you are undercutting somebody where it might be their first load. The whole point to this tribunal was about setting up safe rates. The whole point of this order was about being paid for every hour that you work. This is so rich coming from a government that stands up and rants about farmgate prices. Yet, once it gets loaded onto the truck, they are not interested in the workers who carry the load getting a decent rate of pay. Every time you turn around and drive back up the highway at a reduced rate, you are undercutting the other truck driver that wants to charge a proper rate.

It is wrong for government members to stand up here and say that all owner truck drivers are opposed to this. I have had countless owner truck drivers contacting me to say that they support the decision and that they are tired of being undercut by those who they call the 'cowboys' in the industry. I have had owner truck drivers say to me that the rate that they charge is higher than what the tribunal has ordered. It is wrong for government ministers to stand up here and say that all owner truck drivers are opposed to it, because it is just not true. The purpose of the tribunal is to set in place minimum standards. It is to set in place minimum pay for employee drivers and owner-drivers. It is about road safety. For government MPs to say that this has nothing to do with road safety is also misleading.

My electorate is a country electorate, and there is the Calder Highway that runs straight through the heart of it. When I first became the member, somebody gave me some advice: 'Unless it's road crash, Lisa, you may not get the media to come.' It was a really cynical view about the media in Bendigo, but it also painted a reality of how often there are accidents in the Bendigo area, because we are a major transport route. We have trucks carrying product to port every day, intersecting with a large regional community. The Bendigo Advertiser in April 2016, 'Fuel tanker rolls at Inglewood':

… the fuel tanker was travelling north on the Calder Highway about 7.45pm when it lost control entering Inglewood on a sweeping bend …

This is just one accident from the last few weeks. In the Bendigo Advertiser in March, 'Calder Highway reopened after truck rollover':

VicRoads has confirmed all lanes of the Calder Highway at Big Hill have reopened … following a [truck accident in a] two-vehicle crash at 7am.

In the Bendigo Advertiser, January 2015, 'One killed in Lockwood crash':

The collision involved a truck and a car at the intersection of Lockwood Road and the Calder Alternate Highway.

In the Bendigo Advertiser, April 2015, 'Trucks collide on Calder Freeway':

White paint spilled across two lanes on the Calder Freeway today when two trucks collided …

The Bendigo Advertiser,March 2014, 'Workplace tragedy: man killed in truck accident at Newham'. The Bendigo Advertiser, November 2012, 'Truck driver killed in horror Calder crash'. The Bendigo Advertiser, November 2012, 'Truckie dies in river crash'. Bendigo Advertiser, November 2012: 'Three dead in overnight crashes'. Bendigo Advertiser, 2012: 'Driver airlifted after Midland Highway crash'. Quite tragically, the list continues. To stand here and say that this order is not about safety is wrong. I know it, and people with country electorates know it. This decision by this government to abolish this tribunal says one message loud and clear to people in regional areas: 'We do not take road safety seriously. We are not interested in doing everything we can to ensure road safety.'

I just read out a sample of the articles that have appeared in my local paper about accidents and collisions—some of them, tragically, fatal—involving truck drivers. As the previous speaker said, they are here just blaming car drivers. It is not that simple. It is not that simple.

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