During this session, I raised critical questions with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator regarding the life-and-death matter of rising heavy vehicle road fatalities, noting recent increases in New South Wales and Queensland.
I questioned Ms Rosie about anecdotal insights regarding the source of these high-risk drivers.
Speaking objectively as a migrant myself, I passed on widespread reports I’ve received from Western Australian and Queensland truckies suggesting a high number of Indian immigrants are obtaining licenses too easily or operating without them.
While Ms Rosie maintained that their compliance and reporting systems are strictly risk-based and agnostic to ethnicity, I wanted these serious, on-the-ground concerns from our truck drivers formally put on the record.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for appearing, Ms Rosie. This is a life-and-death matter. It’s killing people. Which are the states where there has been an increase in heavy vehicle road fatalities?
Ms Rosie: New South Wales has had a slight increase, and so has Queensland.
Senator ROBERTS: What about Western Australia?
Ms Rosie: WA I can’t give you because we don’t regulate WA. At a high level, I understand WA is pretty flat.
Senator ROBERTS: I’ve heard a few stories, and that’s all they are; you’ve got the official figures. Anecdotally, are you hearing anything from drivers with experience on the road as to what sort of groups are the source of the new unlicensed drivers, new untrained drivers or inadequately trained drivers?
Ms Rosie: We’re always hearing insights. We’ve got a line that people can call if they want to give us information on illegal or other dangerous activity within the trucking sector. We do get insights on sham contracting and arrangements that are deemed to be illegal or unsafe, and we do track that. One of the things that we’re doing—I would say to the committee this is one of the things that we’re very keen on—is getting the industry to call that line and to give us as much information as possible if they are worried about those concerns. If your constituents are worried about those concerns, please call in. We are using that data very actively to track risk profile of operators and drivers. We have a risk profile of every operator and every driver, and if there are increased calls about particular operators or particular drivers, we will be regulating them more strongly.
Senator ROBERTS: Are there any groups that appear more often anecdotally or in the data—nationalities, ethnicities?
Ms Rosie: By operator? We know the operators who are appearing more in the data, and I wouldn’t say that there was any particular profile other than the way they operate.
Senator ROBERTS: What I’ve heard—I was born in India. I’m a migrant. I look at data objectively. That’s why I’m asking. I’ve heard so many stories from WA truckies and Queensland truckies that a lot of Indians are getting licences very easily—or not getting licences. I don’t know if anyone else has heard that. The chair has.
CHAIR: All of us in the industry know it.
Senator ROBERTS: You all know. I’m not accusing you of anything, by the way.
Ms Rosie: I know. All I can say to you is we take a risk based approach. Irrespective of ethnicity, we will be looking at all operators and all drivers and we will be taking a consistent approach across all of those drivers. If there are groups that are higher risk, you can be assured we will be acting on those groups. We’re doing it right now; we’re acting on a number of groups that we consider high risk and we will take action. Whether that’s stopping accreditation, whether that’s prohibiting their vehicles or whether that’s removing them from the system, we will be doing that. We are agnostic about that. Irrespective of their ethnicity or their backgrounds, we will be taking action against all operators who are operating outside or are high risk.
Senator ROBERTS: Okay. I’m just passing on anecdotal information from WA truckies and Queensland truckies, and the chair has verified it.
Ms Rosie: Understood.
CHAIR: I’m just wondering when we let the rabbit-proof fence down and let you into WA, Malcolm. When did that happen? You snuck in!
The Morrison-Joyce government’s recent fuel excise reduction creating a 22c per litre drop in petrol and diesel prices, is now shown to be a deceitful marketing tactic.
Senator Roberts said, “The devil in the detail is that the Morrison-Joyce government reduced the amount of excise that road transport operators could claim back against their tax, meaning that despite the 22c drop road transport operators only received a 4c per litre reduction.
“The Prime Minister has perfected the sleight of hand; he gives with one hand and takes with the other.”
Road transport is the primary method of transport for non-bulk freight in Australia and is an essential part of the supply chain for many industries, delivering food, clothing and household goods.
Senator Roberts added, “These high fuel prices feed directly into the prices Australians pay at the supermarket. Only yesterday Independent Research firm Morningstar revealed prices in Coles and Woolworths have risen by 4% in just 3 months.
“One Nation lobbied the Morrison Government very strongly this month to get this fuel excise reduction, but we did not expect this short-sighted deceitful con and clawback.
“The money Australians are saving at the fuel bowser with a 22c reduction, will now be spent at the grocery store checkout over the next few months.
“The Morrison-Joyce government excels at deceptive gift giving and I encourage all Australians to punish his insincerity at the next election and to put the major parties last.”
I attended the truckies blockade on the Gold Coast this week, protesting against mandatory vaccines in workers who want to cross the border. Them and many others are asking why you need to implement a vaccine passport for a vaccine if it’s so good?
Transcript
[Marcus Paul] One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts. Good morning to you, Malcolm.
[Malcolm Roberts] Good morning, Marcus, how are you doing?
[Marcus Paul] Yeah, not bad, mate. Whereabouts are you?
[Malcolm Roberts] I’m in Brisbane, Brisbane city.
[Marcus Paul] Ah, half your luck!
[Malcolm Roberts] Doing remote parliament from my electorate office.
[Marcus Paul] Yes, of course, remotely.
[Malcolm Roberts] It’s so frustrating.
[Marcus Paul] Yeah, I bet it is, I bet it’s frustrating, because of course, you can’t leave there because if you go to the ACT, what happens?
[Malcolm Roberts] I have to lock down. I have to quarantine for two weeks when I come back. But first, Marcus, I want to express my condolences for your recent loss of your dad.
[Malcolm Roberts] What do you appreciate most about him?
[Marcus Paul] Ooh, what do I appreciate most? Mate, have you got all day? Everything.
[Malcolm Roberts] Yeah, I have.
[Marcus Paul] I wish I did. Look, my father was a compassionate man. He was very, very kind to everybody. I can’t recall a time where he had a bad word really to say about- And he went through some difficult times in his life, but he was always optimistic. But more importantly I think, Dad taught me to respect people and that’s hopefully what I do. I mean, obviously, you know, I do a radio show, so quite often I go off the rails with some of my criticism, but I never try to make it personal. So look, that’s the main thing. My dad was a truly decent man and I hope that I’m also, you know, as decent as he is. There we go.
[Malcolm Roberts] That’s a wonderful compliment and what do they say? “The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree”?
[Marcus Paul] Hope not. That’s it, mate, that’s it. All right, what are we discussing this morning with you? Vaccine passports. Here in New South Wales, the Premier yesterday basically said that, look, if you are fully vaccinated, you can return to a normal life as of October 17, 18. So she’s well and truly dangling that vaccine passport carrot.
[Malcolm Roberts] You know, Marcus, that really undermines people’s faith in the vaccine, because if you have to be coerced into getting a vaccine, because you might miss out on going to the supermarket, you can’t eat, you lose your livelihood, you lose basic services that you’ve paid for in your form of taxation, then it really raises people’s questions about this vaccine and so they should. Because I’ve checked with the Chief Medical Officer in Federal Parliament, and they won’t say that the vaccine’s 100% safe. They admit that they don’t know the dosage, they don’t know the frequency of injections, they admit that it won’t stop people getting the virus, they admit that it won’t stop the spread of virus, and the efficacy is plummeting. It’s down around 17% of what it should be, so why would you get one of these things? Plus, this is the first time in history that our government has injected something into healthy people that can possibly kill them and we know there are deaths. So I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. And the governments themselves are undermining any faith in the vaccines by the actions they are doing to try and force people to get it. And that’s what the truckies were on about. You know, I appreciated your call on Monday.
[Marcus Paul] Yeah.
[Malcolm Roberts] We were just leaving the truckies’ blockade in Southern Queensland and the truckies just have very simple needs. They just wanted three things. They want a choice on vaccine, whether or not you get it, that’s your choice.
[Marcus Paul] Sure.
[Malcolm Roberts] They wanted to end these capricious lockdowns, which are destroying their livelihoods. These truckies have got to pay off trucks you know. They don’t just get JobKeeper. And then the third thing they want is their kids back at school. I mean, this is just disgraceful what’s going on.
[Marcus Paul] All right, well, look, everybody has a right to free speech and to protest in this country. And look, I’m glad though, that once, obviously, the point was made, I’m glad that you and Pauline moved them on, the way you did and cleared the roadway for other drivers. Because obviously the point had been made, there was some traffic delays, but I’m not a truck driver. I’ve been very lucky. That’s why I try and have a bit of an open mind here. I’ve been extremely lucky. I’ve been able to work and earn, obviously, an income throughout this whole pandemic. So it’s a little unfair on me to jump up and down about people concerned about their rights, and their right to earn an income, et cetera. I’d be a hypocrite to be perfectly honest. I don’t agree with some of the silly protests that have gone on, but I kind of understand it.
[Malcolm Roberts] Well you know, these truckies- just first two points. Firstly, Pauline and I didn’t move them on.
[Marcus Paul] Oh okay.
[Malcolm Roberts] Pauline, she’s a very, very strong supporters of the truckies. Come back to that in a minute. But what Pauline said to the truckies was there are horses stuck in traffic and this was kilometres long, you know.
[Marcus Paul] Yes.
[Malcolm Roberts] You’re not just going to move it by moving aside a truck, you’ve got to end the blockade. So Pauline just said, we know that you’ve made your point. You’ve shown that trucks are essential. You’ve made your point. You’ve got the media in terms of not being forced to get these jabs, injections. There are horses stuck in this traffic. So it’s up to you. You know, she didn’t say-
[Marcus Paul] Yeah.
[Malcolm Roberts] She has got no power to move anyone on, but she just interceded like that. And the truckies being highly responsible just said, yeah, okay, we’ve made our point. And then they opened up.
[Marcus Paul] All right.
[Malcolm Roberts] The other thing is that truckies- a very good friend of mine reminded me of something. Trucks touch every single thing in our lives.
[Marcus Paul] Oh, of course.
[Malcolm Roberts] You know, they transport food to processing. They transport the processed food, the manufactured goods and mate, truckies are so down to earth, they’re responsible for what they’re doing. They’re responsible for other people’s lives. They’ve also, generally, many of them are small business owners. So they have that responsibility as well. Some of them employ people. But truckies are down to earth and they were asking basic questions about freedoms, basic questions. Do they have the right to determine what comes into their body? You know, I’ll make a statement. Parliaments are meant serve Australians and not control Australians. We’ve lost the fact that Parliament serve Australians. Parliaments look after the two major parties. And that’s it. I would far rather have truckies in parliament.
[Marcus Paul] All right.
[Malcolm Roberts] Because they are salt of the earth people. They can represent the people. These guys are salt of the earth and I highly respect them.
[Marcus Paul] The Queensland Premier is copping it again in the press and understandably so. I mean, I have my personal story on this and I won’t, you know, I’ve already said what I have to say.
[Malcolm Roberts] Yeah, I heard that.
[Marcus Paul] But, little Memphis. There’s a little boy, who’s aged three. He’s stuck in New South Wales at his grandparents’ home near Griffith. Due to the border blockade of the Premier of Queensland, Anastasia Palaszczuk, this little three year old has not seen his mum and dad, going on now more than two months. The Queensland Government has refused a reunion exemption. Look, if that’s not compassionate grounds to reunite a three-year-old child with his parents, then I don’t know what the hell is.
[Malcolm Roberts] Marcus, you are absolutely correct. It’s not the Premier. She’s a dope, it’s the Labour state machine. What they have done is instilled fear up here and abused powers. And they’ve done it to keep control of people and done it for their own electoral benefit. And they rely on emotion. There are many, many stories like little Memphis.
[Marcus Paul] Of course.
[Malcolm Roberts] But listen to some of these figures. In Victoria- these are just some of the figures, I’ll go through NSW as well. Every week, more than 340 teenagers suffering mental health emergencies admitted to hospitals in Victoria – 162% increase. Every week, 156 teenagers rushed to hospital for attempting suicide or self-harm. 37 every week needing emergency treatment or surgery. An 88 percent increase – almost doubled. A 90% increase in children with eating disorders.
[Marcus Paul] Okay.
[Malcolm Roberts] New South Wales, daily, more than 40 children and teenagers rushed to hospital for self-harm. That’s up 31%. Acute mental health admissions for children and young people, up almost half, almost 50%. Gold Coast Hospital here in Queensland, a 212% spike in eating disorders from 2019 compared to 2020.
[Marcus Paul] All right.
[Malcolm Roberts] And Queensland’s Butterfly Foundation says, calls for help increased 34% for eating disorders from January 2020 to January 2021. 85% were first time callers to the helpline. In August, the Lifeline Suicide Prevention Line had his busiest days in its 50 year history.
[Marcus Paul] Yeah, we spoke to John Brogden about that.
[Malcolm Roberts] This is disgraceful. Because Marcus, kids are going through the formative period of their mind. Their mind is actually forming and they need the love and nurturing around. Now we’ve got the Premier in Victoria saying they can’t go to their grandparents and get the kiss and a hug. I mean, this is insane. These kids are vulnerable and underdeveloped. Their brains are vulnerable and underdeveloped, and it’s inhuman to expect children to process and cope with the restrictions that adults impose.
[Marcus Paul] All right.
[Malcolm Roberts] Even many adults themselves are now appearing to be on the edge of insanity. And we’re depriving kids of the greatest deprivations, deprivation of liberty, deprivation of education, deprivation of normal development, deprivation of swings, slippery slides and rides on the bike, swims at the beach and local sport, deprivation of crucial friendship support and separated parents, depravation of loving grandparents.
[Marcus Paul] The answer to all of this, is they damn well should have been Olympians or NRL players. Malcolm, I’ve got to go.
[Malcolm Roberts] Good on you mate.
[Marcus Paul] Bye mate. See you later. Malcolm Roberts. There he is. Always passionate, isn’t he?
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/truckieplate.00_02_10_22.Still001.png?fit=1920%2C1920&ssl=119201920Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-09-02 14:13:392021-09-02 14:20:23Truckies and Protests – 2SM with Marcus Paul
