Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by Senators Gallagher and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) today relating to wages growth.

Before I start, Minister Cormann, I want to share with you a catastrophe that this nation finds itself in. I'm glad that there are some grown-ups across the chamber in Senator Brockman, as well, and Senator Stoker. This is serious stuff. We know there's a slowdown and we know that wages growth is pretty poor, but we have a dilemma in the trucking industry in this nation. We have in this nation a very simple thing called the modern awards. We all know how they work. For years, I have argued with everything that I could get for transport workers to be higher than the modern award, because I don't think it's all that great. Be that as it is may, there is a law of the land that says, 'Thou shalt pay X amount of pesos per hour or whatever it might be, or cents per kilometre in the long distance award,' and no-one argues. You don't argue; we don't argue. Everyone in this nation is touched by road transport. Senator Brockman, your family farm would have had a very close affinity with road transport. There is no argument. Whatever we eat, whatever we wear—you name it—everything comes on the back of a truck. Everything is delivered, except maybe the odd baby here and there.

My desk is full of examples of companies not meeting even the basic modern award. Wage theft in this nation is exploding. We've heard some pretty bad examples. There have been some slip-ups from computers—that is Woolworths $300 million—a couple of chefs have been a little shaky in what they've paid, as we know. They're self-nominating and dobbing themselves in, which is great—it's tremendous. But it is exploitation 101 in the road transportation industry. The worst part about the exploitation and wage theft in the road transport industry is the employers themselves. The majority of them are not bad people, but they are having the living daylights squeezed out of them from the top of the supply chain. If you go to employers and say, 'Are you paying your people right?', every employer will say, 'Yep. Everything's cool with me.' They're not going to own up to doing the wrong thing. The truth of the matter is I don't think it's unreasonable for hardworking men and women—whether they are drivers or forkies, whether they are owner-drivers or are employed drivers and employed subcontractors—to be remunerated in accordance with the basic law in this land.

I've got examples here. I'm absolutely gobsmacked. Minister Cormann, you need to take this on board, because you have friends in the trucking industry as well. I know who they are, because they're my friends as well. I have one classic example here that cannot go—and this is only one. There are heaps of them. This is a job advertisement on Seek. They're calling out for an HR, which is a heavy rigid, truck driver with ABN. I'll let that sink in. For those who don't know the industrial laws of the land, you cannot have an employee driver with an ABN. It is completely and totally against the law. Sorry, Senator McMahon, this touches your state because of how important road transport is in the Territory. I know because that was my old run—Perth to Darwin—for all those years.

This is called scam contracting. This is not me running some argument that my union, which I'm a life member of, wants me to go in and give you a tickle-up about. This is serious stuff. This is people out there trying to do the right thing. And this is before I even start talking about road safety. This mob in Queensland is QLS Logistics. I wouldn't know them from a bar of soap. I don't want to know QLS Logistics unless I have the ability to go out there and prosecute them. They're asking for a truck driver:

… Truck driver with an ABN to deliver Multi-drops to the QLD country region. Driver will need to operate Truck and Dog and have a current BFM—

which is basic fatigue management—

certificate to be able to drive 12 hours a day.

That's not against the law. You can do that. The ad continues:

Late model Mercedes Benz autoshift truck provided.

Ain't that wonderful! They're providing a truck for you. It goes on:

Trucks are hand unloaded at stores with trolley by the driver, with deliveries to major retail and whole sale outlets through the country QLD area. All deliveries will be brown and white goods—

furniture; okay, great—

Person to be physically fit.

Yep, you would expect that. It continues:

Applicants MUST have a ABN

Immediate Start.

$300 + GST day rate - runs will be 5 - 6 days long guaranteed each week.

You cannot do this by law. And you know what? No-one gives a fat rat's bottom. There is nobody policing this. The Fair Work Ombudsman is asleep at the wheel. The Fair Work Ombudsman likes to take the easy stuff. He can get out there and ping 7-Eleven or whatever they're called. Isn't someone going to stand up for our trucking people? This cannot remain. We want to start talking about road safety. I'm pleading with you, Minister: something has to be done.