Senator LINES (Western Australia) (12:32): If there was any doubt about the link between wages and safety, there was a report from the National Transport Commission: There is solid survey evidence linking payment levels and systems to crashes, speeding, driving while fatigued and drug use. This evidence has been accepted and indeed confirmed by government inquiries, coronial inquests, courts and industrial tribunal hearings in Australia over a number of years. The association between remuneration and safety applies to both employed and owner/drivers. Last night in the Senate, the government voted down the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. Their sense of accomplishment and excitement over this achievement reminded me of the gleeful nature of the way in which Mr Peter Reith announced the sacking of waterfront workers back in 1998. Both of these moves by conservative governments—by LNP governments—were wrong. Just as it was wrong for the Howard government back in 1998 to buy in so publicly on a waterfront dispute, with their own clear agenda to get rid of the MUA, it is equally wrong for the Turnbull government to have beaten up road safety and the lives of Australian drivers in this debate. It is not as clear-cut as the government would have us believe. It is not owner-drivers versus the rest. It is not— Senator Heffernan: Mr President, on a point of order, I have just noticed Senator Sam Dastyari with his new haircut come into the chamber, but I am pleased to inform the chamber that, as of my call to him the other day, he now knows what a backload is in transport. The PRESIDENT: No, Senator Heffernan. That is no point of order. Senator Heffernan: He didn't know what a backload was. The PRESIDENT: Senator Heffernan, resume your seat. There is no point of order, and that is misusing points of order in this place. Senator LINES: How dare government senators make a mockery of the deaths of truck drivers? How dare you? You should apologise. So the Turnbull government has beaten this up. Senator Heffernan: I'm not making a joke of deaths on the roads, you dope. The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator LINES: It is not owner-drivers. The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Heffernan, you cannot just stand up and speak until you are given the call. Senator Heffernan: Well, bugger it. I'm not going to put up with that. The PRESIDENT: If you have a point of order, you raise it properly as a point of order, and there are other measures to address issues where you think you may have been misrepresented. Senator Lines, you have the call. Senator LINES: Thank you, Mr President. It is not owner-drivers versus the Transport Workers Union, and it is an absolute fabrication to make out that owner-drivers have lost their incomes and their livelihoods because of a decision which came out of the RSRT just a few weeks ago. It is as if suddenly the Turnbull government have discovered mums and dads, as they have repeated it over and over in the media and in the parliament. But guess what: just because you say something over and over does not mean people believe your message or that your message is credible. The Turnbull government's new-found love of mums and dads is not credible. You cannot stand for the big end of town over and over, cut health, education, Medicare and pathology services and put banks before people, and then suddenly discover mums and dads. You fail the pub test, and on this issue it is clear that the Prime Minister and Minister Cash in particular have failed the pub test. Yesterday, in abolishing the RSRT, the government did not talk about road safety or deaths, nor did they outline their plan to improve road safety and reduce deaths. Why? Because they do not have a plan. It is that simple. The Turnbull government are chaotic. It is a government which has no plan, and it has no plan about road safety. The RSRT was not even in its sights until last week. If it was really the big issue they claim it to be then they have had three years to listen to the whole industry and come up with a workable solution that does not put truck drivers and other road users at risk of death on our roads. That is the simple truth. The Turnbull government saw a political opportunity and took it. Unfortunately and tragically, that means more deaths on our roads, because this government have chosen to play politics with road safety. Let me put the facts on the table: $2 billion is the estimated cost of heavy vehicle accidents in Australia every year. Two thousand five hundred and forty eight people were killed in truck related accidents between 2004 and 2014. That is 2,548 people who did not go home to their families—lives lost and families and loved ones in mourning. In 2012-13, there were 1,728 people hospitalised in crashes involving a heavy vehicle. The number of people hospitalised was up by 1,412 from 2005-06. Between 2012 and 2015, 3,000-plus transport businesses went bankrupt. Sixty per cent of these small firms of five or fewer employees—the mums and dads the Turnbull government have suddenly discovered just last week—went bankrupt because of poor cash flow and poor financial control, not because of high wages or because of the RSRT but because they were not getting the money in quickly enough from the jobs they had done. This is about big business screwing over small business—the mums and dads. This is what needs fixing, a fair go for everyone, and this could have been achieved if the Turnbull government was not playing politics with truck drivers and sat down with Labor, the union and the industry to find solutions. Sadly, in Victoria between 2008 and 2013, 53 truck drivers took their own lives. According to analysis by the Coroners Court of Victoria, truck drivers had the highest number of suicides out of any profession. Along with these shocking statistics, we have injuries and deaths caused by speed and drivers ignoring safety to get the job done because of the pressure they are under. And in March of this year, while the Turnbull government was plotting to get rid of the RSRT, there were 25 deaths in trucking crashes alone. There were 25 people who did not go home to their families and their friends—people whose families were left devastated. There was not one word from the Turnbull government about this shocking loss of life—no plan, no proposals, just blatant political opportunism. And let me run the ruler over all the garbage we have heard from the Prime Minister, Minister Cash and the Turnbull government who claim somehow to represent thousands of owner-drivers. Research released today by the Transport Workers Union—checking the facts—absolutely expose the Turnbull government, the Prime Minister and Minister Cash on the garbage they have peddled. Just 12 per cent of Australians polled thought the tribunal should be abolished. They did not ask them. No, they did not ask the Australian voters; they just saw a dirty political opportunity and took it. Twelve per cent of Australians are the only group of Australians who agree with them—not the thousands that they claimed in the media—just 12 per cent. In fact, that figure was consistent. Most of the people polled thought the tribunal should have strengthened powers, and it did not matter who they voted for: whether they voted for Labor, whether they voted for the Liberals, whether they voted for the Independents. Thirty per cent of those polled thought the tribunal should have more powers. They certainly did not support its abolition. Once again, the Turnbull government, the Prime Minister and Minister Cash just ignore the facts of the situation and make it up as they go along. The truth is—the reality is—trucking is one of Australia's most dangerous jobs. Road transport has the highest fatality of any industry in Australia. It has 12 times the average for all industry. Yesterday, when I began this speech, I talked about some of the owner-drivers and some of the widows that I met, and I mentioned a woman who had become an activist because she lost her husband in a trucking accident. Her name is Suzanne and she said: 'We know drivers are forced to work these crazy hours not because they want to but because the big companies at the top are cutting their transport costs. Why is the government trying to abolish the one body which can stop this deadly cycle? Why are they forcing other families to go through what mine has gone through?' Those opposite would have you believe that this is all a big union beat-up. Suzanne was not a member of the Transport Workers Union; she is the widow of a truck driver killed needlessly on our roads. This is a view she formed from sitting in the coroners court and her truth is being denied by those opposite for blatant political gain. Let us hear from Mark, who is an employed truck driver. Mark says: 'Drivers are forced to drive too fast or too long to meet unrealistic delivery deadlines set by companies like Coles. The money is just not there to do everything properly and safely.' And Mark says, and I conclude, 'That is why we need the RSRT.' And let us hear from another owner-driver, not one trumped up by the Turnbull government—an owner-driver who has his own opinion—not one who is being used for blatant political purposes by the Turnbull government, who suddenly found the mums and dads of Australia just last week. Let us hear from Ray who is an owner-driver, 'Minimum rates need to apply nationally to lift standards and ensure people can pay themselves a wage and pay their overheads, otherwise you get a race to the bottom and safety is sacrificed.' Let us have a look at what the RSRT is able to make orders on, or could make orders on. It could establish minimum rates of pay and not put people out of business—but you never heard that from the Turnbull government. It could look at industry practices for loading and unloading vehicles, for waiting times, for working hours, for load limits, for payment methods and for payment periods—all the factors which contribute to a safe trucking industry. It could look at ways of reducing or removing remuneration related incentives, pressures and practices that contribute to unsafe work practices. At the time that it was abolished, after some kind of thought bubble by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Employment just last week, it was looking at issues such as oil, fuel and gas; cash in transit, another dangerous industry; waste; ports and wharves; and retail and long distance—another set of factors which contribute to safe trucking in our country. And what does the Turnbull government do? It abolishes it, for no reason other than cheap political gain. Labor will not stand for that. We will not. We put people first. That is what Labor does. The Turnbull government does not and it never has. Today, as a Labor senator, I stand with members of the Transport Workers Union and truck drivers across this country. I can assure those truck drivers and the Transport Workers Union that Labor will put people first.