Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to add my comments on the committee’s inquiry into workforce challenges in the transport industry. I support the comments of my colleagues Senator Hutchins and Senator George Campbell. Like Senator Hutchins, I have an undying interest in the transport industry. Senator Hutchins and I are the only truck drivers represented in the Senate, and we are quite proud of that. We travelled the country with the support of Senator Troeth, the chair, who, I must add, did a wonderful job in chairing the committee. We had numerous submissions. Sadly, the submissions were all the same: ‘What have we got ourselves into?’ ‘It’s everybody else’s fault.’ ‘How can you, the government, or maybe a new government, help us out?’

A lot of positives came out of this inquiry, but, very sadly, I have to continue my comments along the lines of those of Senator Hutchins. For years and years, Senator Hutchins and I banged our heads against brick walls, arguing about the coming skills crisis that would hit the transport industry. Where will we find tomorrow’s truck drivers? Where will we find tomorrow’s forklift drivers, receival staff, even clerical and managerial staff, let alone mechanics, tyre fitters and auto-electricians? And there are the problems faced by the maritime industry and, obviously, the aviation and rail industries. As Senator George Campbell said, a raft of about eight recommendations came out of this committee, and we fully support them. Wonderfully, they were agreed to by both sides of this chamber, but we just cannot stop there.

I think that one of the saddest indictments in the transport industry is when we talk about traditional trades and trade skills. I have to say that it is very important to have the mechanics, tyre fitters, licensed aircraft maintenance engineers and the like, but who the heck is going to drive the trucks, trains and forklifts tomorrow? If you look in the West Australian newspaper, in my fine state of WA, every Saturday you will find column after column of: ‘Wanted: truck drivers.’ They are just not out there. It is not good enough to sit back on both sides of this chamber and admit that, by the year 2020, our transport task will double. Crikey—I would hate to think what it will be like by the time we get to 2020, unless we start acting now, from today.

I would also like to add that there are wonderful arguments out there about road versus rail, aviation and maritime. This comes from a transport operator and someone who has a vested interest in Australia’s future transport needs: there is a role for all modes of transport. Let us not make any mistake: what rail does, it does very well; what the road industry does, it does very well as well. But we must acknowledge this point: apart from a newborn baby, I cannot think of anything in Australia that is not delivered on the back of a truck. Whether we like it or not, we have to have infrastructure: roads, ports and railway lines. We could have the most efficient railway lines in the world running between our great states and cities, but the goods have to get to the rail yard on the back of a truck. I know that our industry—I still say ‘our industry’, proudly—is not the most popular industry. As is highlighted in the report, the work is done mostly in the wee small hours. When we sit down as Australians and open up our newspaper and our packet of Weeties or pop the bread into the toaster, we do not give any thought to how those goods got to our tables. We know they came from Woolies or Coles, but how did they get there from the farms, the factories and all sides of manufacturing?

I would like to add a few more comments before I conclude. As Senator Hutchins said, sadly, the transport industry wants to make up every excuse for why it has got itself into this pickle. Senator Hutchins is correct. I was part of the implementation of the existing employee traineeships in Western Australia back in 2000, alongside the employers’ representatives from the Transport Forum, the peak body representing transport employers in Western Australia. About $8 million was injected into training, which we supported fully. We supported it fully for a number of reasons. Firstly, we saw the impending crisis coming. Secondly, we wanted to have transport workers’ skills recognised. Up until the last couple of years, transport workers, whether they be truck drivers, receivals staff, forkies, freezer workers or whatever, were never classified as skilled workers; they were never classified as tradespeople.

The committee had a number of submissions from people representing large transport who had the audacity to sit there and say that because of the crisis that the industry has got itself into—using all this money to train existing employees, as Senator Hutchins said—they have not invested one single cent in training new trainees or in apprenticeships. I will tell you why they have not: because of the fear that, if they had to recognise transport workers as skilled workers or tradespeople, lo and behold, the truckies, the forkies and the receivals staff might ask to be paid appropriately. But I will save that debate for another day.

I would like to thank Dr John Carter and Monika Kruesmann, from the committee. They were absolutely valuable to the committee and they assisted us all the way. I would also like to add that the situation we are faced with in transport is not going to be resolved by the two main practices that are happening in the transport industry today. One is poaching. The transport industry cannot help itself. One transport company will let the other companies do a little in-house training that is not recognised through any skills process and then will poach those drivers with the promise of an extra rupiah per hour, or whatever it may be. That is not going to solve the problem. We must have quality training. As a government, through the department and all facets of the transport industry—employers and employees alike—we must offer a skilled framework. We must offer recognition of those skills. If we have to call them tradespeople, that will be a fantastic day for transport workers in this country.

We cannot go to sleep now. To use a trucking colloquialism, the last thing we want to do is to fall asleep at the wheel. The ball has started rolling. It is not just about bricklayers, carpenters, gasfitters and plumbers. Transport employs hundreds of thousands of Australians, directly and indirectly. We cannot take our eyes off the ball. This must be only the first footprint in what we do to meet Australia’s transport needs going into the future. I commend the report to the Senate.