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

Absolutely. For you, Deputy President, always. As I said, these trucking companies have to pay for the cost of fuel. When people go to shopping centres or hairdressers or shoe shops or wherever they may go, every single thing on those shelves has been on the back of a truck—not once, not twice, not three times. The clothes you're wearing have probably been on the back of a truck seven or eight times. Think about that. Think about where the cotton came from. Think about the fertiliser, the machinery and the fuel that's had to go out to the farms. How did it get there for you, Senator Hughes? It didn't just get flown over in a big, magic air balloon. It was actually on the back of the truck. When the cotton seeds are cultivated or the cotton is tumbled—guess what?—it ends up on the back of a truck and it goes off to market or wherever it may go. It may then leave the market to go to a warehouse or a factory on another truck. Then, once it's spun into a shirt or a coat or a pair of socks or whatever you may purchase—oh, my goodness me—it goes on a truck to a distribution centre of Coles or Woolworths or Aldi or wherever it may be. Guess what? It then gets shipped from the distribution centre on the back of a truck, not on a pigeon or a balloon. I hope you can understand that. It then goes to the shopping centre where you've driven and purchased it. There have probably been about eight truck trips.

You can shake your head as much as you like. The truth is that you're arrogant and ignorant about the way this nation operates and you're arrogant and ignorant about our supply chains. You have no idea. In the universities of New South Wales and Hobart, or wherever you cut your teeth, they don't talk about real-world issues. It's all gossip and innuendo and who's going to do over who to get a frontbench position. Sorry, people, I'm still in the real world. You make a throwaway comment like that, Senator Chandler, so I hope I've helped explain to you that the cost of living affects our trucking industry. Someone has to pay for it, unfortunately.

Let's talk about Woolworths and Coles. Woolworths and Coles are having a ball. They're getting their money back. Don't worry about the cost. They put up their prices, and it's hitting all of us in our back pockets. These are the same companies, with the help of you lot over there, who want to suppress the closing the loopholes legislation, which will lead to the opportunity for the Australian truck industry to actually get paid what it costs for them to do business. I hope I helped you out.