Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More than one thousand people have died in truck crashes since the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal was abolished by the Liberal-National government in 2016. There's a whole lot of blood on the hands of every person in this chamber who voted to abolish the RSRT and replace it with nothing.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Standing up for small business, Tony!

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And you were warned, because my friend the late senator Alex Gallacher said during the abolition debate in 2016, 'Lots of these owner-drivers will work themselves to death'—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cash!

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and that's exactly what has happened. Things are only getting worse, with Amazon and now FedEx driving down standards right across the industry.

We need safe rates. We need a system where owner-drivers earn enough to make a living and where companies at the top of the supply chain are held to account. When you don't earn enough to make a living you push yourself, you rush, you can't afford to maintain your vehicle properly and you put everyone on the road in danger. It's not just the Transport Workers Union saying this; owner-drivers and employer associations are crying out for reform. Frank Black, the owner-driver representative of the Australian Trucking Association, says, 'If we've got safe— (Time expired)