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

I've got a good-news story. About a month ago or so, I was doing the Wednesday night live On the Road radio show with Mike Williams, Glenn 'Yogi' Kendall and Craig Forsyth. These guys got together and formed On the Road radio. Mike Williams does the On the Road podcast. Good luck to them. This is fantastic. And they've resurrected Truckin' Life. Mike is the editor.

So we were having a Wednesday evening yarn, talking about trucking stuff and what's going on around the nation. Afterwards, Mike said to me: 'Hang on, Glenn. I just want a word with you.' I said: 'Sure. No worries, mate.' He said: 'Look mate, you wouldn't believe it, but I've teed something up with the mob at the National Road Transport Museum Hall of Fame. The surviving leaders of the Razorback Blockade are going to be awarded history maker awards.' For those who don't know what Razorback was, let me tell you. I was a young, impressionable 19-year-old. I was a company driver. I had a Rigid UD at the time, I think it was, and I think my pants were size 28. I was about one-fifth of the man I am now! But let me just say this: I really remember Razorback.

At the time, Australia had the most regressive, repulsive, horrible tax called the road tax. And the road transport industry were blistered, absolutely blistered. Many, many operators and many owner-drivers were sent to the wall because they hadn't paid their road tax. A lot of owner-drivers cut out their road tax fines in jail time. How bad is that? That's how bad it was. Then, on 2 April 1979, five of the most courageous men in the trucking industry back then met at Ted Stevens' place. Ted 'Greendog' Stevens was the leader of the blockade, but he was ably backed up by five other men. There was five of them on that night—and I'll also talk about the sixth one and how he came into it—who said they'd had a gutful: they're not paying the tax anymore and they're going to park across the highway. They drove out on the old Hume Highway, parked up at Razorback Ridge and blockaded the road.

I'll go through some stats later, but I'm reading from the Sydney Morning Herald from 5 April 2019, which was updated from 6 April 1979. For those who don't know, there were over 3,000 trucks blockading the highways of Australia. There were over 40 locations in four states. This was a huge, huge action to take back then. You can't imagine it now. If the poor devils tried to do it now, they'd be locked up. The coppers would be towing away their vehicles. God almighty, how bad has this country gone? You can't even stand up for what you believe in anymore and take civil action. God help us! Anyway, they did, and I'm going to name these men. There was Colin Bird, Barry Grimson, Jack Hibbert, Ted Stevens—of course—and Spencer Watling.

What actually happened was that, on that same night—I'm led to believe, and if I've got the story wrong, Mike will correct me—there was another truck driver, Carl Goodfellow, who had his son in the truck with him. That was in the good old days when the kids could go with Dad on a run. We can't have that now, though, with all the safety requirements and all that, but that's where our nursery came from, the boys and girls of the trucking fathers, uncles and grandfathers. That's how we all learnt our trade, that's how I learnt my trade, that's how my son learnt his trade. Anyway, that's about the good old days.

Getting back to Carl Goodfellow, he's coming down the road, the gendarmes pull him up and say: 'Look mate, there's a blockade out there. We'll help you.' I do know the name of the road, but I've forgotten it and it will come to me—anyway, doesn't matter. They said, 'You can take this shortcut so you can avoid the blockade.' He got shunted down this road. Off he went down this road with his son in the truck. Unbeknownst to the gendarmes and others, who was at the other end of the road waiting for the shortcut? It was none other than Ted Stevens, Greendog himself, waiting down there, as was Colin Bird. Now, Colin recognised Carl. He said: 'I know that truck. That's me mate.' They waved him down. They said, 'Mate, we're blockading the highway.' He said, 'Beauty, how can I help?' They said: 'You can park up too, mate. What do you reckon? We've got a car here, so we can get your son home.' He said, 'Ripper.' He parked his truck and thanked the gendarmes for the shortcut advice.

Needless to say, nine days later, many, many trucks were stuck there, and I'll go through figures later. Officially, there were six of them, so we'll tack Carl on there as well. The best part of it is that Mike said to me after the radio yarn we had: 'Look, I've got a great idea. I want to raise a few bob. I want to take Carl and his wife, I want to take Spencer and his wife, and I want to get Barry and his wife, but I also want to get Ted Stevens's son, Ben, and his daughter, Kelly, to Alice Springs because they're going to get the award on behalf of their father. Ted passed away in about 2018. It's magnificent for someone who has always espoused that bad laws need to be broken, especially in the trucking industry. I'm in envy of those days that are now long gone because they were when you could get things done.

No-one wanted to do it that way, but that's how you had to do it to get results. I said Mike, 'That's great, mate.' He said, 'I also want to put them up, raise money to pay for their accommodation in Alice Springs.' I said: 'Great. What's it got to do with me?' He said, 'Well, put me on to some people with money, will ya?' I said, 'Let me think about this.' Overnight I thought I wanted be part of this. I rang Mike and said: 'Mate, we're in. Tell them they're going. I'll get the money for the air fares and accommodation for three nights.' Other generous donors helped too, and they know who they are. They chipped in a few bob to help out, and I raised the money through the truck driving stuff I do, backed up by my good mates at Centurion. We've raised the money, and I'm happy to say that I will be joining them in Alice Springs. I can't wait to meet these legends of the road transport industry. Two of them are in their 80s, and I believe they're still driving trucks. I can't wait to meet their wives. I can't wait to meet Ted's daughter and son, Ben and Kelly, and to tilt my hat to them for taking that courageous move. That wasn't easily done.

I read Ted's obituary. Sadly, Ted led the charge and was backed up by the others—and there were about 3,000 other truck drivers—but it cost him, eventually, his job, or his business, and his family, and he was a broken man at the end you can see the effort that was put in, and I'll tell you some of the stuff about what these guys did to try and better the road transport industry. It breaks my heart to think nothing's changed, but rules are going change. Every senator in this building is going to get an opportunity to vote for the betterment of the road transport industry, so the legacy of Ted Stevens and those brave men will live on forever. It's a disgrace that it's taken so long, and I can't wait to vote on this legislation coming through.

What did we have? We had blockades in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. As I said, they'd parked up on Razorback, but there were a number of others. They were stopping heavy vehicles. They weren't stopping cars, so they weren't stopping families from getting to do their stuff. Fruit, vegetables and dairy products were being dumped by drivers stopped at New South Wales blockades. There were 19 blockages around Sydney. The major protests in Victoria were in Horsham, where there were 125 trucks, and Murchison East, 100 trucks. Smaller blockades built up at Melton, 40 trucks, Kalkallo, 40, and Little River, five of them. Victorian police were monitoring the blockades all night. Reinforcements were being organised at Russell Street in case they were needed, but fortunately the truckies were very well behaved. They didn't want drama, and they worked closely with police to continue it. It went through South Australia too. The Sydney Morning Herald in 1979 said:

… 360 transport vehicles were being held up at three places on the Princes Highway east of Adelaide. Blockades were also set up at Mt Gambier and on the south and north-east approaches of Adelaide.

In Queensland, blockades were mounted on the Bruce, Cunningham and Newell highways.

Horsham drivers were on special lookout for two West Australian rigs—

they name their registration numbers—

which crashed the barrier at Rockbank doing 80 kmh.

It sounds like a song or a scene from Smokey and the Bandit. I don't know what happened to them, but a few rebel truck drivers ended up with minor damage to their trucks, and they were shunned by the rest of the industry, and no-one wanted to work with them—nothing wrong with that. The article continued:

The biggest blockades in NSW were at Golbourn-Yass (600 trucks), West Wyalong (400), Razorback Mountain (200) and Boggabilla (400).

Seriously, I can't wait to meet these men, these legends. I can't wait to be a part of the procession that witnesses them getting recognised for this. And of course their wives will be with them too. It was a magnificent achievement. Two of them are in their 80s. Gentlemen, we will meet. We'll have a few beers, make no mistake. There are a couple of reunion parties, and there are going to be a lot of gears changed that night. There is going to be a lot of freight moved that night. The stories will get bigger and bigger as the night goes on. I can't wait to hear them. I can't wait to have my two bob's worth. Guys, your status in my mind will live for ever. I applaud you. To the wives, thank you so much for standing by our truckies. We are now going to have the opportunity to vote to fix this mess up.