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

I rise to commend the hundreds of road transport workers, employers, the National Road Freighters Association and the Transport Workers' Union, who stood together with one voice on Saturday at major convoys all around the country, from Melbourne to Darwin, from Perth to Cairns and, of course, right here in Canberra. All parts of the road transport sector came together to call for urgently needed reform. There were gig workers on bikes and scooters, ride-share drivers, couriers, truck drivers, employers and employer associations, and you know what? They all said one thing together in a very loud voice: 'We are sick of the race to the bottom in road transport. We are sick of the liquidations and insolvencies. We are sick of our mates being butchered on our roads by a system that rewards companies and clients that push their drivers to the absolute, absolute limit.' I am talking about companies like Amazon and Aldi, who make an extra buck by working their drivers literally to death.

I joined a convoy of hundreds of vehicles driving from Goulburn to Canberra, and their industry message was very loud and clear. In fact, I ran into the shadow attorney-general later that day and she told me she was woken up by the blaring horns of hundreds of trucks making their way to parliament House, so I know she heard it too. The message was that we need minimum enforceable standards to ensure the industry is safe, sustainable and viable, just as was recommended by the Sterle inquiry two years ago. In those two years, another 100 truck drivers have lost their lives in road incidents, as have hundreds and hundreds of people who are other road users.

We now have employer and owner-driver groups joining us in the call for reform. Gordon McKinley from the National Road Freighters Association was at the Canberra convoy. He said, 'In 2016 I was one of the owner-drivers leading a convoy to Canberra to get the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal abolished. Since then, our industry has been overlooked and things have got worse. I experienced first-hand what the lack of standards in transport can do to an owner-operator.' He went on to say, 'Today I am joining a convoy calling for reform. I want the industry to be viable and to make full-time driving attractive again. There are dozens of others like me.' He said that we need reform and we need it now. When we have drivers employers, unions, even employer associations all saying similar things, how can those opposite come into this place and oppose road transport reform? It shows those opposite do not represent the interests of the road transport industry; they only represent the interests of the Aldis and the Amazons of this world, the multinational gorillas in the room, who make money by undercutting Australian companies, who make money by ripping off drivers and working them to death.

I also spoke to a group of gig workers based right here in Canberra. Utsaab and Nabin told me about being deactivated from the Uber app without warning, their only source of income gone instantly without explanation or right of reply; just one unverified complaint and they're done. For these gig workers, this is their livelihood and they are being treated as less than human by the algorithm that controls them. They need reform now.

I also want to note the public debate in recent days around Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill. What has gotten lost in all of this is that Woodside has been engaging in the most blatant antiworker and antiunion behaviour in Australia over the last year. It's unfortunate that Ms O'Neill is unhappy about protesters showing up at her house, and I do sympathise with her concern, but I also sympathise with thousands of Woodside workers that she and her minions have been ripping off. Woodside launched 10 completely frivolous legal challenges against their workers to stop them from collectively bargaining. Now they've run out of avenues to waste time in the courts, they're just refusing to bargain in good faith. Guess what? Ms O'Neill and Woodside are extremists, just as they accused others. (Time expired)