John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps I will explain the blue card. In 2005 in New South Wales, the government introduced regulations to the transport industry where every truck driver who drove distances greater than 500 kilometres had to have a blue card. That applies to all truck drivers in New South Wales as well as interstate truck drivers who travel into New South Wales. The blue card was to show that you had gone through an OH&S course, you had an understanding of safety regulations et cetera. And it is amazing that Coles and Woolworths do not even recognise the blue card when the transport drivers pull up there. They have their own regulations, if I could call them that.

I will give you an example of the implications of the blue card. Inverell Freighters had about 11 truck drivers and it cost Kerry Brown, the proprietor, some $8,000 to carry out OH&S training to have his drivers qualify for the blue card. You might be interested that, when he went to buy the blue cards, they were printed by a company in Western Australia and, I think, cost about $55 each. You wonder why the blue card had to be printed in Western Australia. We do have printing machines in New South Wales and people quite capable of doing that, but, of course, the truth of it is that the blue card is printed by a company over there that has strong ties to the Transport Workers Union.

I have a quote here from NatRoad—this shows you the problem with this legislation. That company in Western Australia:

… requires employers in the road freight industry to pay for all employees to obtain safety awareness training, more commonly known as blue card.

Bluecard is a private business in Western Australia with ties to the Transport Workers Union. In fact, the owners of Bluecard have admitted that the Transport Workers Union receives a kickback from each card sold. It also gives those operating Bluecard a list of all truck drivers in New South Wales, whether in a union or not. These trucking companies are charged a compulsory levy that goes to this Bluecard company, which admits it gives kickbacks to the Transport Workers Union, which, no doubt, gives kickbacks to the Australian Labor Party.

I hope Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding are listening to me here. We are looking at a situation where this legislation can force these companies into a situation where they have to buy these blue cards and carry out this expensive training, when we already have OH&S regulations in the states, and there is a compulsory charge for the blue card that provides funding to the Transport Workers Union. To me, that has a rotten smell about it. The truckies I have talked to in New South Wales are furious about this policy of the Carr-Iemma government. Now it has been brought into the Fair Work Bill. It is called the Fair Work Bill? This is unfair work. That is what it is about.