LOCAL contractor truck drivers have the keys in their hands again after a decision to set minimum pay rates was overturned and the independent body that set it scrapped.
A bill to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal — a legacy of the Gillard government — passed the Senate without Labor support on Monday night.
The tribunal recently imposed minimum hourly wages for owner-truck drivers, and its demise has put at ease those who felt they would be priced out of jobs if the ruling was to come into effect.
More than 200 concerned truckies travelled to Canberra at the weekend to protest outside Parliament House, including Balranald owner-driver Allan Linnett.
Mr Linnett said the rate-setting debate had put a cloud of uncertainty over his livelihood, for which he regularly drives long-haul trips to Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
He told The Guardian owner-drivers “couldn’t afford” to charge the proposed rates and referred to fellow truckies who had already lost work because of it.
“Now (the bill) is gone hopefully people have their jobs back,” he said.
“They let us drive up to Parliament House and drive right around… it was a pretty impressive sight.”
Member for Mallee Broad said scrapping the tribunal now, rather than taking it to the election as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had previously indicated, was the right thing to do.
“The impact was now,” he said.
For more on this story pick up a copy of Wednesday’s paper (April 20, 2016).
