Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the time to make real reform. That is what I and many other members heard today. We heard that today because we are seeing the transport industry united—united for workers, united for Australian businesses and united to keep the transport industry and the economy moving. I, along with many other members, have met and spoken with members of the TWU. I have been a member of the TWU for 20 years, so they know they can always come to me. I understand that because I have driven trucks, picked up trucks with tow trucks, worked on trucks, sold trucks, sold truck parts. It is something that gets in your blood and it stays there. It was great to see so many members today making time for them.

We often hear from both sides of this House that trucks move our nation. Without trucks, the nation stops. But the other side like to pretend that they care about our transport workers and that they are for the transport industry. To be honest, I don't think one of them would know the difference between a Humphrey valve and Humphrey B Bear. Do you know what they did when they were in government? They ripped apart legislation and protection for workers in the transport business. They undid the reforms the last Labor government had put in place, reforms that protected workers' lives and advanced productivity within the sector. And what did they replace those reforms with? As usual, absolutely nothing. The laissez-faire attitude that those opposite had towards the transport industry was careless and naive at best, destructive and deadly at worst.

In 2016, the former coalition government shut down the Road Safety Renumeration Tribunal. The member for Riverina got up in the MPI today and said he spoke for truckers—truckers not truckies—using an American term, as if he and the coalition cared so much about the industry. Why during nine years of government did they do nothing to protect the industry, the industry that got us through the pandemic and kept the country moving? Do you know what happened when they shut down the tribunal? There have been over a thousand truck crash deaths since the Road Safety Renumeration Tribunal was abolished.

Unrealistic and shocking pressures from an unregulated industry has meant that 50 per cent of the workers feel wage theft, 40 per cent of owner drivers didn't raise safety concerns out of fear they would lose pay and jobs, 55 per cent of owners have delayed maintenance because they couldn't afford it and one-in-four workers have been involved in a crash while working. That is the legacy of the coalition government ignoring the industry for nearly a decade and that is why we are looking at major reforms to protect our workers and protect this industry.

The meeting we had today was on the back of another tragedy. Last night, there was another truck related death reported—that is, 62 deaths this year alone. This is why we need to reform. The emergence and reliance on the gig economy has been a catalyst for the need for change. Listening to the work and pay conditions gig economy workers must endure just to make minimum wage is mortifying. The lack of regulations has allowed these gig giants to do whatever they want and make their workers work ridiculous hours that endangers them and others on the road.

This Labor government will drive reforms needed to save the industry, and I look forward to working with the minister to ensure the improvement of working conditions by putting protections in place for our industry. We sat there and talked to a fellow today who talked about his nephew being killed as an Uber driver. The way that these vicious companies attack people and treat them so poorly is just unbelievable. Because he hadn't had a job, or had finished one job and was moving to the next in 15 minutes, they considered that he was not an employee. Two minutes after the fatal crash, they were sending him a job, asking him to do work but they refused to stand up and support this man and his family. It is absolutely appalling the way these people are being treated. Most people who drive trucks in this industry do it for the love, do it for their passion. They enjoy the freedom of being in a small business or of driving a truck and getting out there and making a living. The last thing we need is a continual drive down to the lowest common denominator for the industry. That's why it was so appalling as we watched, over the last decade, things slowly strip away as there was a race to a bottom to protect the profits of big multinational companies.

Before I finish my speech, I want to highlight a visit that I had the honour of making last week. I visited BlueCross Willowmeade aged care in Kilmore, which I had visited earlier with Clare O'Neil and Senator Jana Stewart. The exciting bit was that we had an afternoon tea with a lovely lady named Lillian Biddick, who had a strong New Zealand accent. I had a chat to her about having been down to Invercargill, which is the coldest place on earth, and she told me that her family grew up there. I mentioned an Anthony Hopkins film called The World's Fastest Indian. She told me that she was Burt Munro's cousin and she had never seen the film. So it was a great pleasure to take her the DVD and sit there and watch Anthony's fantastic betrayal of her cousin. I wish her well.