Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:51): I recently had the opportunity to join many of my parliamentary colleagues, including the Premier, in meeting with leaders and representatives from my union, the Transport Workers’ Union. As a former secretary of the Victorian branch of the Transport Workers’ Union and former national president, I have spent 40 years fighting for the interests of transport workers across the states. We heard from several owner-drivers about their experiences in the transport industry and what they believe can be done to create fairer working conditions. As people who are, officially speaking, small business owners but whose relationship with their contractor often resembles that of employer and employee, owner-drivers often have far fewer legal rights than they deserve. Trucking is the most dangerous job in Australia, with more workers dying in the trucking industry than any other occupation. It is only right that owner-drivers get a fair go just like anybody else. I applaud the work of the TWU in advocating for a fairer and safer system for owner-drivers in Victoria. In particular I want to thank the TWU national secretary Michael Kaine and the TWU Victoria and Tasmania director of organising Sam Lynch for their strong advocacy here, as well as the many delegates I had the privilege of meeting.