STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator STERLE (Western Australia) (13:03): It is with great pleasure today that I speak about the Heavy Vehicle Rest Areas Steering Committee, which I had the honour of chairing for the past four years. The committee's terms of reference have recently expired, but I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the important work undertaken by the committee and, of course, its dedicated members.

The Heavy Vehicle Rest Areas Steering Committee was established in late 2022 to support the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area initiative. This is a 10-year program providing $140 million in funding through to 2031-32. The committee held its first meeting in February of 2023, before the first tranche of funding opened.

Since then, we have assessed the strategic fit of no less than 58 eligible projects around Australia, with 31 of those projects approved, providing almost $50 million in Australian government funding. Now, six of these projects have been completed under the initiative, and all those projects were assessed appropriately by the steering committee. The committee's discussions also went beyond individual funding applications.

Members regularly raised broader issues affecting heavy vehicle drivers and the freight industry, including freight network operations, rest area amenities and maintenance, access to driver services, user-pays charging and consultation on Austroads's heavy vehicle rest area guidelines. These discussions provided valuable insights to departmental officers who attended our meetings.

In fact, some officials even had the opportunity to gain firsthand experience, and an understanding of the industry, by getting into a truck and getting to see what life is like out on the road. This is why I was particularly grateful to Minister Catherine King for agreeing to establish a steering committee made up of drivers and industry representatives. I believe it was essential that applications for this funding were assessed by people with genuine experience of life behind the wheel and an understanding of what truck drivers need when we are out on the road.

I was very proud to chair this committee, which comprised nine—or 10, including me—industry representatives and seven—or eight, when I include myself—truck drivers, all bringing our own experience and expertise. I confess that I am still a truck driver and I am still sleeping in truck bays. Our industry representatives were Michelle Harwood—an absolute legend in the transport industry—Executive Director of the Tasmanian Transport Association, and Mr Paul Ryan, a very well-known industry player who's currently a board member of Healthy Heads Trucks & Sheds and chair of the Transport Education Audit Compliance Health Organisation, commonly known as TEACHO.

Our truck drivers and industry representatives were Rod Hannifey—everyone knows Rod—long-term truck driver, road safety advocate and former president of the National Road Freighters Association; Johnny Beer, veteran long-distance truck driver and former president of the Australian Livestock & Rural Transporters Association; Kellie Boland from Victoria, who is a committee member of NatRoad and a small-business owner; Bruce Skelton, a truck driver from Queensland; Frank Black, who's known to many of us in here, from South Australia, who is an owner-driver and a long-term TWU representative; none less than Heather Jones from Western Australia, an owner-operator and small-business operator who's also from Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls; and, of course, Craig Forsyth, another owner-driver from New South Wales, who is from the National Road Freighters Association but is also one of the co-proprietors of Truckin' Life and On the Road radio.

Together, these members brought decades of practical experience to the assessment process, and I thank every one of them for their commitment and contribution. While the committee's work has now concluded, I want to assure listeners and the road transport industry that the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area initiative continues under the SLRIP program, with $80.7 million still remaining in available funding over the next few years.

I encourage state, territory and local governments to continue applying for this funding so that we can deliver more safe and appropriate rest areas for our essential truck drivers. Finally, I am also very pleased—I'll have something else to talk about when I have a bit more time—to say that truck drivers and the transport industry still have a very, very loud and important voice in this parliament, and I want to thank the ministers for their engagement with the trucking industry.

I'll end this with one sentence. There is no greater thing that we can deliver to this parliament, when we have the men and women who hold the steering wheel in their hands, than generations of truck drivers being represented and heard in this fine institution.