LOCAL truck drivers have described the scrapping of the Gillard government's road safety tribunal as “bloody awesome” and a “huge relief”.
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The Senate abolished the controversial Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) on Monday night after fierce backlash from owner-drivers forced to pass on a mandatory wage hike they claimed priced small businesses out of the market.
Director of North Wagga livestock transport company Dawson’s Transport Peter Dawson was facing the gut-wrenching choice between charging his clients 30 per cent more per trip or sacking his own sons and employing a unionised workforce exempt from the new pay rate.
“It’s been really stressful these last two weeks. I’ve been fielding a lot of distressed calls from truckies and their families and other businesses in the transport industry who were all feeling the pinch,” Mr Dawson said.
“It was such a mental strain on everyone, no one could understand how their lives could be just be turned upside down.
“I’m over the moon with the decision, it’s such a big relief for everyone.”
Mr Dawson had been flouting the wage hike since it came into effect two weeks ago, partly due to being confused by the more than 2000 different new hourly and kilometre rates.
Riverina MP Michael McCormack rode with West Wyalong owner-driver Clayton Thomas in Monday’s convoy to Canberra.
“Clayton has a wife, Naomi, and a 19-month-old son, Isaac, and if the bill passed he would have been forced off the road,” Mr McCormack said.
“He’s a good, honest, hard-working driver who has a safe rig because he’s the sort of bloke who doesn’t cut corners.
“Truckies have log books they rigidly adhere to, they don’t go over the speed limit because they don’t want to risk their licences. This was only ever about getting more members for the Transport Workers Union (TWU).”
In lieu of the tribunal, the government will funnel more than $4 million towards the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to preserve safety outcomes, including monitoring of heavy vehicles with a national network of cameras.
The TWU maintained road transport had the highest fatality rates of any industry in Australia with 12 times the average for all industries and there was a link between road safety and the pay rates of drivers.
The transport union also claimed the wage hike would have reduced truck crashes by 28 per cent.
A group of 50 union drivers and their families visiting Canberra placed 250 crosses in front of Parliament House, each representing 10 people killed in truck crashes in the last 10 years.
