Transport Industry

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Independent Senator Glenn Lazarus (QLD), which means it was unsuccessful.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) while the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) and associated orders has assisted to restore a competitive level playing field for the owner driver transport sector across Australia, the disruption caused by the RSRT has significantly affected industry confidence and market conditions more generally for owner driver operators, and

(ii) it may take some time for the owner driver sector to recover from the disruption, and as a result, in the meantime, many owner drivers are suffering financially; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to provide urgent assistance to owner driver operators by:

(i) conducting a survey to identify the number of owner driver operators who have lost work as a consequence of the Road Safety Remuneration Order 2016 and have not had their former work reinstated, with limited or no prospects of recovering work given the investments already made by small/large fleet operators,

(ii) establishing a national emergency financial assistance fund to provide financial payments to owner driver operators for up to 3 months,

(iii) providing owner driver operators with written acknowledgement of the abolition of the RSRT and associated orders to assist with market awareness,

(iv) calling on the financial sector to suspend payment requirements for truck and home loan facilities for owner driver operators for up to 3 months, and

(v) providing funding to a community based organisation to assist them to provide owner driver operators and their families with targeted, specialist and industry specific counselling and support services.