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

I am so excited to get up here and make my contribution to this discussion. Listening to Senator Chandler, I have to tell you, is quite comical really. You know, when we get 20-odd-year-olds coming into this building who haven't had any life experience but who want to talk about how much they love workers and talk all about jobs, I would just say that I came in here when I was at the young age of 45, so I can talk from life experience.

So you talk about the farce that the mob opposite have of creating opportunities and you talk about what a magnificent job they're doing for working people and young people. Well, I have to tell you, Mr Acting Deputy President Gallacher, I've had a privilege in the last few months of running around the nation talking to more and more truck drivers as the weeks go by, and I'm going to start by telling you some home truths. Do you want to know how good things are out there? It's about time this mob opposite actually took their fingers out of their ears and started listening to what goes on in Australia.

Now, I wrote off to the Fair Work Ombudsman and I said, 'Since your inception in 2009, how many cases have you run against employers for underpayment of wages or sham contracting?' And I have to give it to Ms Parker, she wrote back to me. I admire the Fair Work Ombudsman; I just think they're grossly underresourced and I think that they have their hands tied behind their backs. They haven't got any opportunity. You know how the rules are bent towards this mob opposite and their donors. She said to me there have been 20 cases of underpayment of wages for truck drivers. Mr Acting Deputy President, Senator Gallacher, you and I can sit down and have a nice stubby of Carlton Dry and I reckon I could come up with about 50 companies during that one stubby. And you, with your experience, would probably have another 50 companies just from South Australia alone. This nation is corrupt and rort—the underpayment of wages in the trucking industry alone.

The mob over there rub their hands together because some high-profile chef's been touched up because he's done something wrong, or Bunnings has done something wrong or, they said, even Maurice Blackburn. Go for it! What about the hardworking men and women in the transport industry? Some of the shams and scams going through the industry will be no surprise to you, Mr Acting Deputy President.

One of the greatest scams in this nation is called 'kilometre rates'. This goes back to the time in your previous life, Mr Acting Deputy President, when you were negotiating these enterprise bargaining agreements and rates, before we got the EBA system, and the fights we had with the industry bodies about average speed and all that sort of stuff. There are some very good employers out there who pay a kilometre rate. It's negotiated. It's above the award kilometre rate. And they'll do the right thing and pay hourly while the guys and girls are loading or unloading, or whatever they're doing. Fine, no worries. The majority of employers in the road transport industry, predominantly in the interstate line haul sector, are absolutely ripping off their drivers. I'll talk about the eastern seaboard, because this mob over there probably haven't been past Jerrabomberra; that's as close as they've got to the west, where the real trucking starts. The employers say it's 880 kilometres between Melbourne and Sydney, so they'll pay for 880 kilometres, not taking into account that drivers have probably spent five or six hours running around Melbourne or Sydney doing the loading. Someone's got to actually wash the bucket of nuts and bolts; someone's got to put the fuel in it. They don't pay for that. That's all part of the kilometre rate. The drivers just do that for love! If you have to change a tyre halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, or Sydney and Brisbane, or Adelaide and wherever—you don't get paid for changing the tyres. That's all part of your kilometre rate. So don't expect to get paid for all the add-ons. This goes on day in, day out in this nation. I challenge anyone to tell me that I am wrong. I know I'm not wrong. I know because the drivers tell me this.

That side over there spout about how wonderful they are—'We love jobs and we love workers!'—but half of you wouldn't know a worker if they fell over one. You wouldn't have a clue what a worker goes through. You're all privileged. So don't sit here on $200,000-odd a year and tell us how wonderful it is out there. You're asleep at the wheel!

Senator Bragg interjecting—

If you want a debate, mate, I'll give you a debate. I'll debate you day in, day out. Don't you dare step into my space if you're not informed, mate, because this is my area and I know it damn well!