Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I spoke with Sue Posnakidis and her sister, Christina, who came from Canberra to Adelaide to tell their story about the road death of their brother, John.

In 2010, 42-year-old John Posnakidis, a dad to three children, was killed by a semitrailer whilst he was waiting at a bus shelter. John was himself a truck driver; his truck had broken down and he was waiting for assistance. The driver of the truck that killed John was hauling 37 tonnes of steel from Ballarat to Adelaide, and reportedly had had only five hours of sleep in the previous 27 hours of work. The coroner described the driver's work schedule as 'tiring if not gruelling' with the insufficient rest being attributed to the need to meet a delivery deadline.

John Posnakidis died because of a serious problem within the trucking industry, including the number of road deaths, suicides and bankruptcies that have been known about for years and which cannot continue to be ignored. Yet the Turnbull government, rather than considering the evidence and the facts relating to this very serious road safety matter, rather than sitting down with all the affected parties to seek a way forward and rather than addressing the central issue of road safety for all road users, instead moved to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal.

This was a knee-jerk response to an issue of national importance by a chaotic government led by a desperate Prime Minister who has no plan, no idea and no commitment to anything but his own future.