STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator STERLE (Western Australia) (13:38): Congratulations, Madam Acting Deputy President Stewart, on your ascension to the seat of power! Last Thursday I hosted a round table with Minister Sophie Cotsis, the New South Wales Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Work Health and Safety, and Simon O'Hara from Road Freight NSW, bringing together representatives from across the road transport industry and government to discuss the important issue of sham contracting.

We were joined by the Transport Workers' Union; the National Road Freighters Association, NatRoad, the Victorian Transport Association and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation, alongside the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Taxation Office, the federal Treasury and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. It was a wide-ranging and productive discussion, with valuable contributions from industry, the TWU, regulators and government about the challenges facing the sector and the need to ensure workers and businesses are operating on a fair and level playing field.

The Fair Work Ombudsman provided an update on its work as at 7 October 2026, highlighting the scale of activity underway to address sham contracting and worker misclassification. This included five current road-transport supply-chain investigations, 30 investigations referred from external stakeholders and 39 infringement notices issued for unlawful independent-contractor advertisements.

There were also 13 compliance notices involving worker misclassification, more than $94,000 recovered for 17 workers and 24 current cases being investigated in relation to sham contracting and misclassification. And I want to congratulate the Fair Work Ombudsman on their work. What a magnificent job they are doing.

But whatever happens, we have to continue down this path. If there are ratbags out there exploiting their workers and avoiding tax and payments, you need to put them in. Let us know who they are.

We'll pass that information on.