Senate debates
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009
Second Reading
Debate resumed from 17 August, on motion by Senator Sherry:
5:06 pm
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009 repeals the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Act 1995. It is being implemented to allow the Australian Capital Territory to implement the seventh edition of the Australian Dangerous Goods Code and enact model legislation in accordance with an intergovernmental agreement. This bill continues the previous government’s work and commitment to transport regulatory reform in the area of transport of dangerous goods by road and rail. The ACT cannot implement the model legislation until the Commonwealth repeals the 1995 act. The repeal being enacted by this bill will come into effect on a day to be fixed by proclamation to coincide with the passage of legislation by the ACT government.
The coalition is satisfied that the bill is a necessary piece of housekeeping as it applies the approach to regulatory reform agreed to by the former government. Unfortunately, the effort the Labor Party is making in its own right to address these fundamental matters of economic reform is far more disappointing. The Productivity Commission has estimated that the cost to Australia’s GDP of conflicting transport regulations is something like $2.4 billion. The National Transport Commission in 2006 found that, after one decade of effort to pursue regulatory reform, only one-third of oversize and overmass provisions that apply to heavy vehicles have been implemented in a nationally consistent way.
We mentioned in the parliament before, in relation to other legislation, some baffling examples of regulatory transport inconsistencies. One such example is that a truck operator carrying hay bales and loaded to its maximum allowable three-metre width in Victoria will be overwidth in New South Wales where the maximum width is 2.83 metres. So a Victorian farmer who loads his truck with hay as wide as is legally possible in Victoria would not be able to drive across the border into New South Wales. That stupidity cannot continue in our federation. The coalition has previously mentioned the failure by the states to take up in a uniform way the heavy-vehicle driver fatigue reforms agreed to by the Australian Transport Council in early 2007 and rolled out from September 2008. It is disappointing that Labor governments in Tasmania and the Northern Territory have not yet applied the fatigue reforms that were agreed by the Australian Transport Council. It is also astounding that New South Wales and Victoria, which have applied the reforms from 29 September last year, have introduced variations. These include differences between Victoria and New South Wales in logbook requirements and in defence provisions should a breach of fatigue regulations occur.
The coalition is also concerned about variation between the states in opening up their roads to the highly efficient B-triple vehicle combinations. In spite of agreements to do so, New South Wales refuses to make a serious effort to open up its road system to these vehicles. Victoria is also lagging, only allowing B-triple use between Broadmeadows and Geelong. Unfortunately, the failure of the New South Wales government to implement the higher mass limit reforms agreed to by the Australian Transport Council in 2000 has made it difficult for truck operators to realise this investment and has added to the costs of fleets operating across the South Australian and Victorian borders and into New South Wales. These are just a couple of examples in what is a very serious problem in economic inefficiency in Australia.
Regrettably, the Labor government does a lot of talking about it at a lot of meetings, but precious little is done. We know that the Labor Party is good at running up debts, creating something like a $315 billion deficit in our country—a liability of about $15,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. We also know that the Labor Party is pretty good at trashing programs aimed at regional Australia and turning them into election slush funds aimed at urban seats.
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
You are an embarrassment and a disgrace! You absolutely sicken me!
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Thank you, Senator Sterle. The programs for rural and regional Australia that were a highlight and a high mark of the previous government were ignored by the Labor government, were cancelled by the Labor government, and the moneys channelled into inner-city seats where most Labor members represent. And any time Senator Sterle wants to have a debate on that, he should let me know, because he knows he will be beaten in that debate as he is in most other debates.
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
You are a goose!
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Labor is simply not interested in rural and regional Australia and the facts and figures show it. As often as I can, I will be highlighting that.
Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Madam Acting Deputy President, I rise on a point of order.
Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Madam Acting Deputy President, I understand he is supposed to sit down, isn’t he?
Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I would just like to point out to Senator Macdonald that we actually hold the majority of regional seats in this country at the moment.
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Madam Acting Deputy President, why you required me to sit down for that piece of political futility and stupidity I cannot imagine. I only respond to interjections made by Labor Party senators to highlight the fact that rural and regional Australia has done considerably worse since this government was introduced, and it is because there are very few members of the Labor Party from rural and regional Australia. I look around the other side of this chamber and I cannot see one senator who comes from rural and regional Australia. At the same time, I look around this side of the chamber and I see that 100 per cent of the senators are from rural and regional Australia. And while they are only small numbers, it really demonstrates that senators on this side understand, empathise with and live in rural and regional Australia, and we understand those problems.
Because this bill continues the work started by the Howard government, we as a coalition will be supporting it. I want to note that we are talking about a reform bill but referring to dangerous goods. I also want to highlight a transport matter that is of particular concern to the part of rural and regional Australia that I come from, and that is the main arterial road which connects Northern Queensland with the rest of Australia and crosses the Burdekin River between Ayr and Home Hill—as senators may know, I live in Ayr. There is a bridge there that was the state-of-the-art engineering construction in 1957 when that marvellous Queenslander, Vince Gair, a great Premier and a very significant senator in this chamber, opened it—
Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
And ambassador.
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
And ambassador, he was indeed. He curiously took the ambassadorship at a significant time in history and perhaps by doing that altered the whole course of political history in Australia. When Vince Gair opened that bridge, it was the latest in engineering and it was a high-level bridge over what had for almost a century been a road and a rail line that actually ran through the bed of the Burdekin River, which in times of flood put it anywhere from three to four metres under water. It was a great event. Of course, in the intervening 52 years that bridge has become entirely incapable of carrying the traffic that now passes along the highway. It is very narrow and it is dangerous. If there are dangerous goods on trucks and there is an incident, the whole highway between the rest of Australia and the productive parts of our country in the north will be blocked.
For some years now I have been calling for a duplication of that bridge. Regrettably, nothing seems to have been done to date. It will be a long-term process, but someone has to make a start on the engineering work necessary. I remember during the last budget the honourable member for Dawson, in whose electorate the bridge is situated, came out with a great announcement that he had got money for the Burdekin Bridge. I thought that was tremendous and really good that someone had heeded my calls and had started work on it. I thought it would take a long time, but I was pleased that they were to start work on a duplication of the Burdekin Bridge. When I read the fine print, of course, there was no such good news. What the honourable member for Dawson was talking about was that he had got $5 million, I think it was, for maintenance of the bridge. Well, hello! The bridge has to be maintained every year, and lauding the fact that a government is doing what it is required to do hardly seemed to me to be a great announcement.
However, urging work is being done. I know the Burdekin Shire Council have been petitioning for work to be started. I am pleased that after a lot of pushing the state Department of Main Roads is starting to look at road allocations which might join up with a new bridge in the not too distant future. I can only urge both the Queensland and the Commonwealth governments to continue the work on that and to properly fund that work so that sooner rather than later we can get a duplicate bridge across the Burdekin River to ensure continuous access between the north and south of Queensland.
Whilst talking about transport of dangerous and other goods in this bill, I want to again draw to senators’ attention the Outback Way, which runs from Winton in Queensland to Laverton in Western Australia. I have to pay tribute to Senator Crossin for her initiative in forming a cross-party Friends of the Outback Way group in Parliament House, which she and I co-chair and which comprises members and senators with an interest in bridging the gap between north-east Queensland and south-west Western Australia and all places in between.
As I have mentioned in the Senate on a number of occasions, back when the Outback Highway Development Council first brought its proposals to Canberra 10 years ago—at the time I was a minister in a relevant area—it was a proposal that I thought had a lot of merit. I did take off six or seven days back then to actually drive from Townsville to Perth across the centre of Australia via the Outback Way. The Outback Highway Development Council has continued its works since then. In a parliamentary recess last month members of the parliamentary Friends of the Outback Way group joined with councillors from the Outback Highway Development Council and councillors from all of the shires along the way at the official opening in Alice Springs of the first permanent office of the Outback Highway Development Council.
The council is shortly to appoint its first permanent employee in the form of a CEO or a business manager who will be based in Alice Springs. The opening took place on Monday, 31 August at Alice Springs and those that were gathered there then drove the road from Alice Springs to Winton, where the annual general meeting of the Outback Highway Development Council was held. The convoy of vehicles travelled from Alice Springs to Boulia, which is just across the Northern Territory-Queensland border, on the first day and then on the second day from Boulia through to Winton.
The Outback Highway Development Council estimated that they only need a tiny $800 million to seal the road, but they are realistic enough to know that it might be difficult for any government to fund that in one lump sum. By the year 2014, they are seeking to have the Outback Way from Laverton to Winton trafficable for family sedans—trafficable in the sense that it will be safe, convenient and not too damaging for a family sedan to drive that road. Those of us who travelled it earlier this month were all in four-wheel drive vehicles. Some of the road is sealed. The road from Alice Springs up the Sturt Highway almost to Harts Range is sealed, but from Harts Range through Tobermory to Boulia is a very difficult road that is not well constructed, although the Northern Territory are spending some $8 million of road works within the Territory.
When you come across the border from the Northern Territory into Queensland, the road from the border to Boulia should be a state road, a Queensland road, and you would hope that the Queensland government would put some money into it. Regrettably, the Queensland government have refused to classify that road as a state highway, so it remains a shire council road that is being funded by the very limited resources of the Boulia Shire Council. They are doing a fantastic job with their own funds, but it is disappointing that the state government could not be more involved there.
The road from Boulia to Winton is sealed all the way. It is an interesting trip and I would encourage senators who want to see the real rural and regional Australia to drive that road some day. It is fascinating country. The road is narrow but it is bitumen sealed. Places like Winton and Boulia are well worth visiting. There is a must-stop destination about halfway between those two towns. After about 2½ hours travelling from either end you come to a place called Middleton, which consists solely of a hotel set in the middle of vast savannah lands. It is quite an interesting spot with a long history as well.
This road across Central Australia cuts about 1,600 kilometres off the trip from Townsville to Perth around the coast. It has very significant tourism influences. Surprisingly, German adventure tourists are already driving the road from Perth to Townsville or Cairns. A lot of work is happening in Germany and around the world to publicise it. It would be a great tourist experience. It will also shorten the freight distances between the north-west mineral province of Queensland and the powerhouse mining areas of Western Australia, thereby making freight much better. It has very significant defence implications as Australia’s largest Army base is in Townsville and our SAS troops are over in Western Australia. There is a lot of military activity in Darwin and our training grounds for Afghanistan are down south near Adelaide. So, if the Army could use the Outback Way as well, it would have very significant defence implications. For that reason, I was delighted that the member for Herbert, who is the shadow parliamentary secretary for defence, was able to come on this trip with me and understand how important this road could be to Australia’s defence in the future. The Outback Way is a great project. I commend it to other senators and I reassert that the coalition will support this bill.
5:26 pm
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am enlightened that Senator Macdonald can take a drive through this beautiful outback country of ours and all of a sudden become an expert on the cartage of dangerous goods in the ACT, but I must add some commentary. One thing Senator Hutchins and I do know about is transport, so we always welcome the opportunity to comment on these bills. Before I talk about the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009, I think it would be remiss of me not to challenge some of Senator Macdonald’s wild assertions from the other side of the chamber. We know it is Thursday afternoon and it is a bit boring for the opposition—they send speakers in to waste a bit of time—but that was a shameful contribution from Senator Macdonald. The first part was quite intelligent, and I do not say that lightly because not much from Senator Macdonald is. I am sure he will challenge me on that. However, the middle bit was nothing but a vitriolic anti-Labor rant, which has become typical of Senator Macdonald when he has got nothing else to talk about.
No-one can tell me about the importance of Australia’s highways. Let us talk about defence and Australia’s highways. I remember sitting on Highway 1 year in, year out, sometime between January and March, being bogged or stuck at river crossings and flood plains that go for two or three kilometres. I do not think that one trip through the back of Queensland to Laverton in Western Australia would make Senator Macdonald an expert in anything to do with road transport. I have a few words to describe Senator MacDonald and expert is definitely not one of them.
It is most important, too, to challenge Senator Macdonald’s ridiculous assertions—and I will come to the bill shortly—about how the Rudd Labor government has attacked rural Australia and left rural Australia wanting. I just happen to have a copy of the 2009 budget papers in my desk, so I am happy that Senator Macdonald started talking about spending for rural and regional Australia. Let us not forget for one minute what the Howard government delivered over 12 years in the form of transport corridors. I remember that in about 2000 the railway line from Adelaide to Darwin, which was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, was about to be started. In my last conversation with the Australian Rail Track Corporation about the Darwin railway, I discovered that, unfortunately, it is now wallowing in debt. It is not being used, and I will tell you why. It is because—and I am proud to say this—that, when it comes to certain freight requirements in this great country of ours, road transport excels. Road transport leaves every other form of transport in its wake. I will acknowledge that, when it comes to certain bulk commodities, rail has its niche in the market, whether it be grain, ore or whatever. It is certainly competitive with road across the Nullarbor as long as your freight is not time sensitive, which road transport certainly can deliver. One thing about road transport is that it will pick up from your premises today and it can guarantee—all things being equal and without any floods or anything like that—that it will be at its destination by the time it is required.
Shipping also has its role to play in this great nation of ours. Let us have a look at what the Rudd government is delivering to rural and regional Australia. It makes me happy that I get this opportunity to keep reminding those opposite how it is—and how they hate to hear it. They cannot stand to hear what a wonderful job the Rudd Labor government has done and is continuing to do, and they are doing it without any help from that side. Without our stimulus packages where would we be today as a nation? If those opposite were in government—and thank goodness that they were not—when the global financial crisis hit us late last year, things would have been different. I will turn to the words of the great Western Australian shadow Treasurer, the member for Curtin. I use the word ‘great’ tongue in cheek, it is an oxymoron, and I will apologise to the Senate; it is not great. The member for Curtin, the shadow Treasurer, responded, ‘We should just sit back and wait.’ Fortunately, there is a magical word in that line, ‘shadow’. They were not in control, and thank goodness for that. The stimulus package has saved Australia. I do not know how many times those opposite have to be told—come on, Senator Ronaldson, bite! I do not know how many times they have to be told in this chamber and in the other chamber about the 200,000-odd jobs, and let us not forget that—two MCGs full of Australian jobs. It is a very conservative figure from Treasury. More than 200,000 jobs have been saved because of the Rudd stimulus package.
In terms of our nation building plan for the future, let us talk about the additional $8.5 billion for the nationally significant—are you ready for it?—transport infrastructure investment. And I will say it one more time: transport infrastructure investment, which was sadly lacking in the 12 years of incompetence on that side of the chamber during the Howard regime. $8.5 billion will provide the building blocks for Australia’s long-term economic, environmental and social prosperity. Regional areas will benefit from improved freight supply chains. Simply, freight supply chains are road, road infrastructure, rail and ports—every single thing that that lot over there turned a blind eye to in those terrible 11 wasted years. These improved freight supply chains will better connect major towns and cities and also improve travel and communications.
Where I travel in this great country of ours it is fantastic to see the commodities that we export—our mineral commodities, for example. There is no doubt about that. Coming from Western Australia, I am very proud to think that our future is looking very good, and the same can be said for Queensland. Whether it be iron ore or bauxite or alumina, whatever it may be, it is looking healthy. We can have the best mines in the world and we can have the best mining practices. We can have the best trained and equipped staff. We can have the most attractive markets around the world. But if we do not have that infrastructure transport supply chain, it all comes to diddly-squat, because if we cannot get the commodities from the mines to our ports, someone else will. Thankfully, after 11½ years of inaction something is being done about it in a $8.5 billion nation building plan for the future that will link the cities. It will link these mines and our ports.
A particular highlight of the plan is the government’s investment in Australia’s key freight route, Network 1, which we call N1, which stretches from Melbourne to Cairns. Have I driven that road? Yes, I have. Did I drive it during the Howard years? No, I did not. I had driven it during the early 1980s, during Fraser’s years—Fraser, the fellow who used to vote Liberal—and I have got to tell you, by all accounts, the boys were still telling me that it was not much better through the Howard years. The Rudd Labor government will do up that section of highway. It will do that major freight route up. It will spend the money wisely and it will create not only stimulus for jobs, small businesses and employees, but it will link our major cities. Senator Ronaldson, as I keep reminding you, this is very, very important. I get it, Senator Ronaldson, but unlike me, you are not listening; it is not sinking in.
Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I can assure you it is!
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
It is Thursday, thank you. Sorry, Madam Acting Deputy President.
Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Yes, Senator Sterle, address your remarks through the chair, not across the chamber.
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I will. He might not but I certainly will. Another important part of the Rudd infrastructure spending is the community infrastructure program—$800 million. The majority of it will go through in 2008-09 to regional and rural Australia. Senator McDonald’s absurd, ridiculous statements, turning everything into a vitriolic attack on the Labor Party, show that he just cannot handle it. It is in his DNA. He has to get up. It is like Dracula coming out of the coffin. The only thing missing are the teeth. As soon as he rises to his feet it is to attack the government. They cannot help it. Senator Macdonald cannot help it. I do not know whether it is something to do with their being forced to merge and become the LNP in Queensland. If I were a member of the Liberal Party in Queensland, I would be bitter and twisted all the time too if I had to join up with The Nationals.
Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am quite proud to say that I understand his frustration and the frustration of the rest of the Queensland Liberals. Having to be in the same room as the Nats is challenging enough—but to attack Labor, to attack us on what we have done in infrastructure spending to create jobs, to save at least 200,000! I know it is a four-letter word that they cannot handle—jobs—but unfortunately that is what we are all about. If I remember rightly, when we were initiating the stimulus package, I think they were all about jobs too because that is all they kept saying. Since the stimulus package has been in, since we have been the only developed country not to go into recession, do we hear about jobs from that side of the chamber? Not at all. I know it does upset them. We do not hear a thing about jobs. They do not care about workers; they do not care about small businesses.
We have seen what they are about. We have seen that they could not dent the support for the Rudd Labor government’s stimulus packages for Australia. So what do they do next? They go into their magic box of evilness, they push aside the Howard carcass and what do they drag out? Work Choices! We heard it from their leader, Mr Turnbull, the other day in Sydney on Monday and Tuesday. ‘Deflect all the good stuff that the Rudd Labor government’s doing. Let’s talk about Work Choices. I’m not going to rule it in, I’m not going to rule it out; I’ve got no idea; I don’t even know if I’m going to be the leader come Monday.’ That did not work. They could not condemn our stimulus packages. They could not condemn us for saving Australian workers. They could not condemn us for supporting Australia’s small and medium enterprises.
So what did they pull out next? On Wednesday, ‘Yank, yank, let’s pull the race chain. Let’s plead for another Tampa, something to save us.’ Into the box of evil they go again and they push everything aside—the carcasses and all the leftovers from those bad, wasted years—and they pull out ‘Let’s pick on asylum seekers.’ It is absolutely unbelievable to see the amount of time wasted in this chamber on MPIs from those opposite who are reliving the dark Howard years. I have to tell you, Madam Acting Deputy President, for those opposite: he lost! He is no longer the leader of your party. He is no longer in Bennelong. He has gone. Forget it. Cut him loose. Get with the play.
To go to the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009, let us make no mistake about this. The coalition, in their 11½ years—it felt like 12½—did absolutely nothing to improve Australia’s road transport laws from 1996 to 2005, before I came in here. How do I know? Because I shared the frustration with Western Australia’s truck drivers. I shared the frustration that Western Australian truck drivers in Kewdale could hook up two 48-foot freezer pans, chiller pans, dry pans or flat tops. They could chuck the dolly underneath and they could choof off out of the trucking areas of Kewdale and Welshpool and they could head north. They could get to Wubin, after traversing that disgraceful piece of bitumen that we call Highway 1, the Great Northern Highway, where road trains pass each other. For those opposite, road trains are two trailers with a dolly in between before they get to Wubin and then they get a third one on.
Judith AdamsGlenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Sorry, Senator Adams. You would know, but not many of your colleagues would know. Maybe you should help them out. The speed of the road trains is 100 kilometres an hour, which, for a fully-laden road train at 48 tonne, is not a huge speed because these drivers are professionals. They are experts in what they do. The equipment normally is absolutely schmick, it is up to speed, it is top notch. I would encourage anyone to travel Highway 1 on a Friday night when the road trains are heading out, when mirrors are passing each other at 100 kilometres an hour, with no more than 12 inches between those mirrors. If anyone thinks that is an exaggeration, get off your backsides, get out there, pull up any truckie and ask if you can jump in his rig and go for a ride on a Friday night. In 11½ long years, did they do anything about Highway 1? Did they do anything to improve the width of the road, the camber of the road, the potholes or put in extra truck bays? Did they, Madam Acting Deputy President? I will make it easier for you. They did nothing.
To listen to Senator Macdonald in this chamber lecture Senator Hutchins and me—two ex-transport workers, truckies, the whole lot—about how all of a sudden he has become an expert in road transport because he went on a lovely trip from Queensland to Laverton—and I have been to Laverton more times than I care to remember—on the Outback Highway, and all of a sudden he is an expert, is rather embarrassing.
In just 18 months, Labor has got COAG agreement to a single national jurisdiction for heavy vehicles. Hallelujah! In 1988, when I was a subcontractor for Ansett Ridgways, which was a division of TNT—a truly fantastic transport icon in our history which, sadly, is no longer around, and we know the reasons why Ansett is no longer around—so that this building could be opened on time for the Queen’s visit, the company I worked for went to the then powers that be to seek dispensation so that we could drag a road train across the Nullarbor, so that all these seats and tables here could be fitted for the opening of parliament, so that the Senate and the House of Representatives could work. That was in 1987. That was probably about 1997 or 1998, some 11 or 12 years later, before road trains were able to operate on the Nullarbor. That was the biggest step that ever happened. So for the 11½ years of the Howard regime diddly-squat! And listen to the rubbish coming from that side of the chamber. It is nothing short of sickening.
It is good to see that, under the new dangerous goods reform package, which has been endorsed by the minister and the Australian Transport Council, the act has no further purpose, which we know. This is probably the only thing on which I agree with Senator Macdonald. It is a barrier to the ACT being able to implement the new model dangerous goods transport legislation. Further, the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009 meets the Australian government’s obligation under the Inter-Governmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Road, Rail and Intermodal Transport to repeal any road transport legislation enacted by the Commonwealth on behalf of the ACT once that legislation is no longer necessary.
Repealing the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Act 1995 will allow the Australian Capital Territory government to implement the new model legislation within its own legislative framework in the same manner as the other states and territories. This is another very good example of ending the blame game and of working together. The repeal will be effective with the implementation by the ACT government of the new dangerous goods provisions. Once again, this is a very good example of governments, state and federal, working together for the benefit of not only the states but also the country. It is governments working together for the benefit of the employers and the employees and the productivity of this great nation. It ends the blame game so that we can work together to deliver what is needed to take this great country forward.
This legislation is an integral part of the process of implementing the new dangerous goods reform package and, as I said quite proudly, it was agreed to by the Australian Transport Council. It is very pleasing to see this sort of agreement going through the Australian Transport Council. When we were trying to negotiate in Western Australia for fatigue management, it was an absolute dog’s breakfast. Every state had a different regime. You could leave Western Australia thinking you were legal in driving X-number of hours per day to get to the South Australian border, only to find out that not only were you over the number of hours for the day but that, within a day or two, you would be over your week’s quota. This is one step, but there is a lot more work to be done.
We have talked about safe sustainable rates. That is another bogie for those on that side of the chamber; they do not like it. When it was introduced by the Western Australian transport minister, Alannah McTiernan back in 2001 or 20002, our biggest hiccup, the bogie, the fly in the ointment, was none other than the federal minister for transport, Mr John Anderson. I will say no more. The coalition could not talk about safe rates for truck drivers or owner-drivers back then. They will not be able to talk about them now. I am happy for them to sit there and talk about how wonderful they are and how they want to see small businesses grow. You lot over there—through you, Madam Acting Deputy President—truck drivers are small businesses. This comes as a bit of shock to you, but unfortunately they are. That is why we on the Labor side represent them. We have their best interests at heart; you do not. (Time expired)
5:47 pm
Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank senators for participating in the debate and for supporting the bill. I remind the Senate that the Road Transport Reform (Dangerous Goods) Repeal Bill 2009 will repeal the Road Transport Reforms (Dangeruous Goods) Act 1995. It is an important part of our cooperative and collaborative federalism. It will allow the ACT government to implement the updated Australian Dangerous Goods Code and the associated model legislation into its own legislative arrangements in the same manner as other states and territories. Currently, the ACT cannot implement the updated code and associated model legislation, which has been endorsed by the ministers of the Australian Transport Council, until the Australian government takes this step of repealing the existing dangerous goods transport legislation.
The repeal completes a longstanding commitment by the Australian government and the states and territories to repeal any road transport legislation that has been enacted by the Commonwealth on behalf of the ACT once that legislation is no longer necessary. I commend the bill to the Senate.
Question agreed to.
Bill read a second time.