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

I will certainly do that, Mr President. I will try and disregard those interjections, which are, of course, disorderly; I will just disregard them when they start yelling across the chamber at me.

That is what happened: everyone wanted the order to be delayed so people could actually see how bad it was; they wanted an understanding of it. But no—the tribunal would not do that. They would not listen to anyone. They just said, 'We have the supreme knowledge of the transport industry. The 35,000 owner-drivers—they don't know anything about transport; they don't know anything about maintaining their rigs or about being safe on the road; they are ignorant.' That is a disgusting attitude for that tribunal to have, and it will be very pleasing if, hopefully in the next 20 minutes, this tribunal is dead and buried, so people can get on with their jobs, go out and do what they do best—

Opposition senators interjecting—