How the crossbench can avert a disaster

How the crossbench can avert a disaster

In a weekend of dramatic developments, Queensland Senator Glenn Lazarus became the first crossbencher to take up my call to support repealing the legislation that set up the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (A plea to the Senate crossbenchers, March 31).

As I will explain below, the stand by the former rugby great makes a double dissolution less likely and the whole debate is headed for the High Court because of constitutional issues.

Starting today, according to the tribunal ruling, long-haul owner-drivers are required to lift their rates two- or threefold, while the big transport operators employing Transport Workers Union people have no such requirement and so are able to undercut owner-drivers, thereby decimating their business.

There are at least 35,000 owner-drivers and the tribunal ruling will create a huge series of bankruptcies and forced selling of property as the TWU friendly operators take the best contracts. Farmers that don’t get a cut-price deal from the TWU operators will be hit very hard. It will almost certainly cause an Australian recession.

During the weekend, crossbencher Nick Xenophon said he had no idea of the repercussions when he supported the legislation that established the tribunal.

We will forgive him for that mistake but there is evidence that Julia Gillard and the TWU knew exactly what was being planned when they introduced the legislation.

Xenophon should have been awake to the TWU/Gillard plan.

South Australia is set to be savaged by the tribunal’s ruling and all eyes will be in Xenophon to see if he is prepared to remedy his mistake by joining other crossbenchers in repealing the tribunal legislation.

An enormous rally of truck drivers is planned for South Australia as soon- to-be-ravaged owner-drivers and the South Australian based independent operators realise the full impact of the TWU and Tribunal actions.

Meanwhile, the Independent Contractors of Australia has received top legal advice that the transport tribunal is making transport price rulings that are unconstitutional.

Back in 1973, the Whitlam government called a referendum and Australians were asked the question: Do you approve the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled “An Act to alter the Constitution so as to enable the Australian Parliament to control prices”?

The Commonwealth had returned the power to control prices to the states after the war and Whitlam thought price control was the way to cut back what was then high inflation. Australians emphatically rejected the constitutional change.

But no one in their wildest dreams could have envisaged that a Commonwealth government would set up a tribunal which would try to use what appears to be non-existent Commonwealth powers to lift the prices charged by one group in the society so larger, union-backed operators can savage that group’s market share.

But no one can ever be sure of what is decided in High Court cases so only by repealing the legislation can we be certain of avoiding the impact.

The Australian Industry Group is seeking to have the tribunal’s imposition delayed but that’s just a temporary band-aid solution (Ai Group court bid on truckie pay rates, April 2-3). Band aids may help in the short term, but the repeal of the legislation is the only answer.

Senator Glenn Lazarus took to social media yesterday:

Brisbane is just a WALL of trucks at the moment! If the TRIBUNAL doesn't listen and put the order on hold for a... https://t.co/assK2Y8gbI

— Glenn Lazarus (@SenatorLazarus) 2016年4月3日

In my view, while it is possible that the TWU and the Tribunal may agree to mothball everything for a year, they show no signs of doing that. Worse still, in a year’s time the Senate will be totally different.

It’s likely that the ALP and the Greens will control the Senate after the election and both parties are dependent on massive grants from the union movement. On matters like this they will do what they are told.

At the moment the crossbenchers and the government have a majority in the Senate. Australia has only one opportunity to abolish the tribunal — the looming special sitting of Parliament.

If six of the eight crossbenchers ask the government to abolish the tribunal the government is likely to agree, provided the crossbenchers also support the reinstatement of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

If the crossbenchers ask the government to insert a simple clause that makes it a criminal offence for directors and executives to pay money to unions, as recommended in the Heydon report, the government will probably agree.

In that situation there will be no double dissolution.

The background to these events was described in my previous articles (The high toll of punishing truckies, March 30 and Truckies are on the road to ruin, March 29).

Update: As a result of the above commentary, Nick Xenophon has put out the following statement:

When Nick supported the Bill establishing the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal in 2012, it was presented to him as ensuring that truck drivers received fair remuneration, could deal with disputes fairly and in particular deal with big supermarket chains who kept drivers waiting — unpaid — for hours due to bottlenecks.

But it now seems the way the legislation has been interpreted could spell the end of owner-operators which he does not agree with and this needs to be dealt with urgently. This in his view is clearly an unintended consequence.

He supports a delay in the implementation of this system which is due to commence today (I note the Federal Court has stayed the decision). He has been speaking to Nationals’ Senator John Williams, SARTA’s Steve Shearer and the TWU and will continue to work hard on this issue until a resolution can be found which ensures the future of owner-operators, while maintaining the original intent of the Tribunal.

My comment on Xenophon’s statement: Nick you have been completely hoodwinked. That legislation was designed to enshrine the position of the TWU and the transport majors. There is only one solution, it has to be repealed. Otherwise, the TWU, the tribunal and the others involved will simply trap you again. The next senate could be controlled by the union-dominated, ALP and Greens, so, the owner-drivers only have one hope: that 6 of the 8 crossbenchers will act to prevent widespread bankruptcies and suicides as the owner-drivers are put out of business and are forced to sell their trucks and houses.