Turnbull must stand with the people or stand with the mob

Grace Collier
APRIL 9, 2016
THE AUSTRALIAN
This is the defining moment for the Turnbull government. Right now, there is a battle raging between the forces of organised labour and free enterprise. And at the moment organised labour is winning.
There are at least 35,000 people — people who sit and drive for us, and who haul everything we want moved all around this country — who are watching their incomes evaporate into thin air.
These people are falling into despair and financial ruin. The government must act. They cannot turn away.
Well, Prime Minister, cometh the hour, cometh the man; we are all watching — what will you do?
You probably don’t realise it, but we are in the fight of our lives. The quest to establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission pales in comparison.
This fight is over the right of the self-employed not to have the government dictate the prices they charge for their services.
Think about this. The government is dictating to small-business people what they must charge for their services, and threatening to prosecute and fine their customers if they don’t pay it.
This scenario is staggering; difficult to comprehend. How did it come about? The previous Labor government set up a body called the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. This body issued a “safe rates” order. A legal challenge has failed. The order is now in place.
The order applies to self-employed owner drivers in large sections of the road transport sector. This order dictates the prices all consumers, whether they are individuals or businesses, must pay self-employed truck drivers (including those who employ family) for their services.
Failure to pay these rates can result in prosecution and fines of up to $54,000 — against the customer, not the truck driver.
To find out the rates you must pay trucking companies from now on, go to the RSRT website and use the online calculator.
But here is the cruellest twist. Companies with employed drivers, not related to the owner of the business, don’t have to charge these rates. Yes, the commonwealth is fixing prices — for small businesses, but not for medium or large businesses.
How are consumers supposed to tell the difference when they ring up a trucking firm to move their stuff? Who knows?
The consequences are predictable. The bigger transport operators will wipe out the little guys, then capitalise on their misfortune by buying their trucks dirt cheap. Apparently, orders have already been placed for masses of foreign workers on cheap wages to drive these once much loved rigs.
The Turnbull government is concerned about the order, very concerned, just not enough to do what is required. This is so typical of conservatives. They fervently believe in reform and decisive action. Just not yet.
The government has already released two formal reviews that both say the RSRT should be abolished. Crossbenchers and the Nationals are calling for abolishment. People are virtually at the point of putting guns in their mouths, yet the government proposes a delay.
Prime Minister, what more are you waiting for — the Lord God himself to come down from the heavens and abolish the RSRT for you?
Just before Easter, in desperation, hundreds of owner drivers wrote appeals to the RSRT.
In response, they received form letters telling them they must attend hearings, over Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday, for up to 10 hours a day.
Here is an excerpt: “You should be aware that it is an offence under section 89 of the Road Safety Remuneration Act to fail to attend at the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal in accordance with an order requiring a person to attend. The penalty for such an offence is imprisonment for six months.”
You may think that this is only about a bunch of truckies. It is not. This is the thin end of the wedge. What do we call this — socialism, communism or just plain evil? Whatever we call it, the forces of organised labour are watching and waiting, salivating at the possibilities for wider application.
The Coalition stands for the free market or it doesn’t. The Coalition stands for small-business people having free access to open markets or it doesn’t. It stands for the rights of citizens to hire companies without worrying whether they may be prosecuted and fined or it doesn’t.
The choices are pretty stark; there really is no in between.
So, Prime Minister, what will you do? Will you stand on the side of fairness, freedom and individual enterprise, or will you stand on the side of the worst excesses of union domination?
Will you stand with the people or will you stand with the mob?