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

I did not get an answer from you, Minister, about why you did not consult with the transport industry, so obviously you do not want to answer that. I will conclude by saying that it is just another part of this modern award system that exists in our state and it is probably the reason why the Electoral Commission are now going to remove another federal seat from New South Wales. Prior to the 2007 election we had 50 seats and Queensland had 28. We went down to 49—we had the seat of Gwydir taken off us—and Queensland went up to 29. Now they are doing it again, because New South Wales will go down to 48 federal seats and Queensland will go up to 30. These regulations, the red tape and the absolute strangling of business is why people are moving out New South Wales at a rate of knots, yet somehow through this we could expand New South Wales red tape and bureaucratic bungling right around the nation!

I will just add one more thing, Minister. The drug and alcohol testing policy must permit consensual and non-consensual testing. It says employees and labour hire employees who voluntarily disclose professional drug use or a personal drug or alcohol use problem shall not be subject to disciplinary action but shall be provided with counselling, training and, if necessary, treatment and rehabilitation. This is the sort of rot that flourishes in New South Wales. As I said, from the blue card to the red tape to the financial gains to the union movement, no doubt flowing to the Labor Party, the transport industry has tough fatigue management laws, implemented nationally on 28 September 2008, as I said—and the industry is happy with those laws. You have no need to introduce any more laws in the transport industry here and burden our transport industry with red tape and extra costs—and then wonder why Australian exports cannot compete. It is just another burden, especially on country areas, where the transport industry is so vital. I will close by repeating the question: why did you not consult with industry representatives over this issue?