Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak tonight about the plight of a number of lorry owner-drivers and employees involved with the Tooheys brewery contract in Sydney. In February this year Tooheys advised its prime contractor, Tolls, that after July this year they would no longer be carting the grog for the brewery and that Linfox would be. About 60 lorry owner-drivers are affected by this. In fact there are still a handful of the men who are carting Sydney’s beer around who were employees of Tooheys back in the early sixties when Alltrans took over the contract and indeed forced those men to buy their trucks to keep their work.

No account has been taken of the 40-odd years of loyal service of these men—and effectively it is almost all men. The only changes of contracts in that period have been from Tooheys to Alltrans to Tolls. But the men have been advised that, as of July this year, they will be finished. There is a lot of goodwill involved with the men who will be affected by this change if it does proceed in July this year. A number of the men—some of whom are ex-footballers from Sydney—have put up not only their own homes but their parents’ homes for mortgage to pay the goodwill for the entry into the contract of carriage to cart Tooheys product.

This matter is before Deputy President Peter Sams tomorrow afternoon in the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales, and the claim that the lorry owner-drivers have placed against Tooheys, Tolls and Linfox is, I understand, a figure of up to $21 million. This may appear a strange procedure to take. Not only some colleagues on my side, but I am sure also those on the other side, might not be familiar with the fact that for nearly four decades these independent contractors in New South Wales have been able to be represented by a trade union before the Industrial Relations Commission in that state. That union, of course, is one that I led for some years: the Transport Workers Union. That will not be the case if the government’s independent contractors legislation is introduced and is carried by the House of Representatives and the Senate. I want to remind you, Mr Deputy President, that independent contractors occupy about 12 per cent of the transport task carried out in the transport industry in this country.

So if the independent contractors legislation becomes law it would remove the protections currently available to owner-drivers in New South Wales by removing their access to industrial jurisdictions to resolve disputes, by removing their right to collectively negotiate contracts and be represented by a union in these negotiations and by removing access to the New South Wales contract of carriage tribunal, which protects their investments in goodwill. The proposed impacts of these changes would also mean that they would have no access to the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales, that there would be no contract determinations to set minimum rates and conditions, that there would be a restricted choice of representation in negotiations with principal contractors, that there would be no contract of carriage tribunal to hear claims of goodwill, that there would be no ability to review unfair contracts and that there would be no ability to reinstate unfairly terminated contracts.

In relation to unfair contracts and the contract of carriage tribunal, I was quite active in making representations to the then Liberal-National Party government in New South Wales, headed firstly by Nick Greiner and then by John Fahey. The New South Wales coalition government allowed for the private member’s bill moved by Peter Nagle, a Labor member for Auburn, to go through the parliament—both the legislative assembly and the council—to set up this contract of carriage tribunal, which allowed for inexpensive means by which lorry owner-drivers could go and argue a case in relation to their goodwill. Of course, the TWU was and is intimately involved in this procedure.

If the independent contractors legislation is carried in its current form, the only avenue that the men and women who are involved in carting products and owning their own vehicles will be costly civil remedy. At the moment the lorry owner-drivers who are affected by the decision of Tooheys to change their contract from Tolls to Linfox will be, as I said, in the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales tomorrow afternoon. They hope to do more than secure their investments and their livelihoods; they wish to keep, of course, their jobs with the incoming contractor. This is not unusual in the road transport industry, where men often change the logo on the side of their truck and, indeed, get told what sort of truck they need when a new successful contractor comes in. Many will have seen over the last few months the agitation by lorry owner-drivers, particularly in Sydney in relation to the intention of the government to proceed with this legislation to deprive them of union representation. This is union representation that they have had for nearly four decades. Not only did aspects of that have the support of Nick Greiner and John Fahey, but it went right back to Sir Robert Askin, when these legislative remedies were being sought to look after and represent lorry owner-drivers.

I am concerned that the procedures outlined by the government in the independent contractors legislation to deprive these men of union representation will lead to costly civil remedies that a number of men would not have access to. Already there is a significant concern amongst them that they will lose not only their own homes but their parents’ homes as they had put them up as collateral to pay for goodwill payments. If that is the case and if they do stay in the industry, where there is no regulation of rates or conditions, then the bottom line will be safety. That has been proven time and time again. When men are put under pressure to make delivery times and to cart ridiculous distances with the allocation they have got, they will speed, they will overload and they will take drugs to keep themselves awake. In the end that has become a murderous recipe so many times over the last 30 or 40 years that we have had mechanised lorries on the road. I am concerned that these men will be left out to dry and that it will inevitably lead to some terrible breakdowns in their families because of the pressure that will be put on those families. They will not have any means whatsoever to pay for the goodwill payments and for the upkeep of the vehicles.

The matter needs to be dealt with in an inexpensive and open forum, as is available under the New South Wales jurisdiction. If the government’s independent contractors legislation does become law, then that will deprive these people of an opportunity and a mechanism that they have had for nearly four decades. If that is done, then it will only behove the government to see whatever the consequences are for that—whether it is in terms of their families, their finances or terrible tragedies. I bring this to the attention of the Senate tonight because these men only have a number of months left before Linfox will take over. I understand Linfox has made it clear that these men will not be offered employment. All they will have is their vehicles. They will have no work, and a number of them have worked in this contract for nearly four decades.