Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will sum up a little bit. Family First will support request (1), which is to make sure that there are not any formulas going with the indexation. We will support request (2), which says that there should not be more than one increase in the financial year. Regarding request (3), I have listened to both arguments. I am a bit nervous about the idea that it can be disallowed. You might come back and say that it is tough to give it back. I think I will support request (3).

I am still not sure about request (4). This is about safety. That is the core of it for me. Rest areas are something that I think most Victorians and Australians would be fairly concerned about. Were you saying that the $70 million is not tied to the transport charge? I thought it was linked to this bill. I am a little bit uncertain there. The $70 million covers 14 big truck stops or 140 small ones or somewhere in that range. I think quite a number still need to be done across Australia, so the funding certainly needs to be increased. I am worried that having no set increase in truck stops is a real concern. The situation is basically: ‘Trust me. There’ll be more coming.’ At the other extreme is the opposition putting in a little too much detail. I am probably erring on the side of saying that I would rather have more road stops than not.