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

Unfortunately, I only have 10 minutes but I just want to highlight a problem we have in this nation. In fact, it is a national disgrace. I am going to talk about the corruption within certain RTOs—registered training organisations—in this nation when it comes to heavy-vehicle licensing. I think that everyone should pay a lot of attention to this. This is not whistleblowing.

I want to talk about the failure of the Turnbull government to secure well-paid jobs for Australians, but it has got worse than that. And before I go much further I want to thank my fellow members of the Rural, Regional Affairs and Transport Committee—not only from this side of the chamber but also from the government benches—who are just as alarmed as I am.

This started earlier this year, around March, or something like that. I saw a tweet, and all I could see was the back of the taut line of a trailer with a bridge in front of it. As it worked out, there was a B-double—Scotts Transport—using subcontractors. This B-double was on the M5 in Sydney, and the drivers in it—two drivers, one in the bunk and one behind the wheel—thought to themselves, 'Oh-oh! We're not supposed to be on this road. We're not going to fit under there.' This is just the start, and I am not making this up—this is fair dinkum. A Hollywood scriptwriter could not write something this alarming. They could not back it up. They could not back the B-double up! And it got worse—they could not uncouple the B-double. So they blocked three or four lanes of peak-hour traffic until someone from RMS, which is Road and Maritime Services in New South Wales, came up, broke it all up for them, moved it out of the way and got the traffic going—whatever they did.

The police were there, RMS were there and then they put these Indian truck drivers in the truck. I am not having a go at Indians; let's make this very clear—this is anyone who has been exploited. Then the police and the RMS waved them goodbye! Sayonara, see you later!

I am a heavy-vehicle operator, as everyone knows. I did not come to this place because I fell through university and then on campus one day thought, 'Geez, I wouldn't mind being a senator.' I actually went out and worked. I was a small-business owner—my wife and I ran our own little trucking company and we worked out very early on in the piece that if you want to make a small fortune out of transport, start with a large truck. We put in our hard yards. We absolutely put those hard yards in, and I am proud to say my son is doing it and my old man did it before me.

This is something that really alarms me. We had the ability, through the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, to have an inquiry, and we have been calling people in. RMS are out there and they know I want to talk to them. They were going to come last week, but something popped up. But they have promised me faithfully they are going to come back.

I want to highlight that we are talking about the Turnbull government, and there is 13 minutes of my life—I am going to be very careful and watch what I say under the standing orders—that I am not going to get back after I had to sit in here and listen to some of the drivel from a previous speaker—oh, Senator Macdonald! I just want to correct the record: we want to talk about Australian jobs. I have absolutely no problem with foreign workers coming into this nation, as long as Aussies are employed first. If you are going to condemn me because that is a sin, well, you had better start throwing rocks at me now, because I am not changing my platform. I want to see Aussies employed first, and I want to see the big end of town actually take their hands out of their pockets and put some dollars on the table for training. We should be doing everything possible to support the development of our fine, young Australians.

I do not think I would find one person on that side of the chamber—well, there might be the odd fruit loop—who would want to have a public argument with me. We all want to see our kids employed. Look at the state where I and Senator Smith come from, Western Australia. It was only six years ago that we were in here bagging about Western Australia. We had bragging rights—it was the engine room of the economy. It is not the engine room of the economy anymore. Our eggs were in one basket, and all those workers have gone. I will just remind the chamber, for Senator Smith, sadly, our unemployment rate in WA is higher than in South Australia and Tasmania. I am not casting aspersions on South Australia and Tasmania—everyone else does that—but that is how bad we are going at the moment. There is nothing on the horizon in WA.

I want to get back to this: alarm bells are going off in my head. We have heavy vehicle operators out there running interstate operations with B-doubles—we are not talking about a little Toyota ute running around the back blocks of Western Sydney or something—who are not even properly trained. I raised the problem with the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. I will tell you what happened: we found this RTO. This RTO is called ACT, and they will have the opportunity to clear their name. There is no problem. I wanted them to come to me and say that they had nothing to do with that horrible, corrupt trainer who they employed.

I will tell you what he did. He is Indian, and he even exploited his own mates. These poor buggers were coming out here with the hope of being able to get a job and being absolutely exploited, and I will get to how they got here. There were 114 of them who this crook trained and assessed. He trained them and assessed them. How corrupt is that? They got their licences and they were off; they were B-double operators, no worries. The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads told us that they issued them with show causes as to why their licences should not be taken from them. Of the 114—this is the alarming bit—80 had their licence downgraded from a heavy vehicle licence to a car licence. Of these 80, 17 failed a class heavy rigid Q-SAFE practical driving test and 63 downgraded their licences voluntarily. Thirty-four licence holders have passed the class heavy rigid Q-SAFE practical driving test and are eligible to upgrade to higher classes. Can we believe that? This is in Australia. Credit to the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, who were onto this straightaway. They have fixed it up.

I ask the question: what about the corrupt trainer? And I will go out there and say it—do not worry about that; I am not hiding behind parliamentary privilege. He got suspended for a year. I thought to myself, 'Does that mean he can come back?' Fortunately, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads have made it very clear that if he thinks that after the suspension he will be licensed and ready to train and assess in 12 months time he will have a lot of difficultly passing the law.

I have to go on, and this is what makes me so angry about that side over there. This is not new because, as we have uncovered—and I had no idea at the time—in Victoria there was another corrupt trainer who was training. He worked for one of the major transport companies. The major transport company, to their credit, had nothing to do with this and no knowledge of this. They raised the alarm, and good on them. They went to VicRoads and their name is as clear as anything. Six hundred and fifty drivers got put through—tick, flick, no worries—who had not even done the training, because he was getting the kickback, so VicRoads had to go back and reassess them. These are people out on our streets with your kids, my kids—all of us. They are coming at us with juggernauts. We are talking 60-odd tonne coming at us and they are not even doing the training properly.

This is the crown jewel, this one. There was one in New South Wales. Listen about this fellow. His name is Christopher Binos. He was working for none other than RMS, I believe. I think he was training for RMS. I will check that just to make sure. He was a trainer and he got done for accepting bribes to falsely certify logbooks. I am reading from an ABC press release. It says the inquiry heard he issued licences to 91 truck drivers without assessing them. So you can understand my passion and my anger. If we add up all these truck drivers—and these are just three incidents we know of—there are 650, 140 and 91. The lot of them had not even done the training properly.

I have something on Facebook, if you want to see what is coming on that. We are going to continue this inquiry with the good help of my fellow senators across the chamber as well as on this side and hopefully your good self, Mr Acting Deputy President Whish-Wilson, or whoever the Greens transport spokesperson will be this year or next year. There is a lot more that is rotten in truck training land, I can tell you. If you wonder why I get passionate it is because these should be Aussie jobs with proper training for Aussie kids. Do not anyone try to tell me that there is a shortage. We have truck drivers literally on the streets looking for work. It is one of the industries in Australia that is really, really struggling.

Like I said, for 13 minutes I had to listen to Senator Macdonald giggle his way through the stupidity of his presentation. He was laughing because it was all a big joke to him and he was holding up props and all sorts of stuff. No wonder this nation is in trouble. I just make a plea. I have members of the Nationals and the Liberals who are backing me on this. They will continue to work with me. But when we talk about Aussie jobs this is not dog whistle stuff. When anyone says that it is okay and that we have to look after the bottom line and that it is too expensive to have Aussie jobs and Aussie wages, I want to vomit. It absolutely makes me want to puke. They think that is all okay because they are worried about productivity and sustainability. Yes, we have to be productive. Yes, we have to be sustainable. But if you want to push and argue for wages and conditions that match Asia's then why don't you lot on the opposite side go and live in Asia? Why don't you go and live on the same pay rate as those people? You would not, because—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—you are hypocritical. I have a lot more to do on this transport stuff, I can tell you. I have six years to play with this. I am not going anywhere. This is my hobby.