PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT 8 APRIL 1979
PRIME MINISTER'S COMMENTS TO PRESS IN PERTH
( TRUCK DRIVERS DISPUTE)
Prime Minister:
Neville Wran's been up on Razorback apparently most of the day,
or a fair bit of it. He's not said what's come out of that and at
the moment the truckies aren't saying so either. But the
information I have from Peter Nixon is that they put what was
basically decided on Saturday but which the State Ministers
didn't put out in terms of a statement. In other words, if
they go back to work the road maintenance charge would come off.
The States would look to see what alternative charges could
be put on and that might be a uniform license fee or a uniform
registration fee or might even be some sort of petrol
franchise charge, as it was reported to me. Now, if we can
help in the States coming to agreement on any of those aspects
of course we will, but these are matters that are in the State areas
of responsibility and if they can come to agreement as I am
advised they could now or could have over a long period worked
out some sort of uniform charge so long as it was related to the
wear and tear on roads caused by interstate transport. The other
aspect which we are willing to look at is the extent to which
restrictive trade practices legislation might prevent the
truck drivers getting a reasonable charging structure and that's
related to some of the other problems in the industry as
you know the ease sometimes, with which finance canbe
available; somebody gets into trouble and to stay alive they
just cut rates further and that compounds the problems for the
whole industry. State railway charges are also very much related
to that because that establishes a competitive position between
railways and interstate transport. I think that is basically
where the matter lies at the moment.
Question: Sir Charles has said that the position as far as the Eastern
States has got is out of control, that there is two ( inaudible);
a taxing problem and physical problem of the trucks blocking
the road and they should be treated separately. He says as far
as the Eastern States go the States should ask the Commonwealth
to use whatever physical resources they have available to clear
the roads. If you had any approach either individually or
collectively from the State Premiers, what would be your
position? Prime Minister:
The States, neither individually or collectively have asked us
to do anything in that vein. The only request they had put to
us, earlier of course, was to pick up their loss of the
road maintenance tax and we said we are not going to do that
through an increased fuel tax which would be an increased charge
on every petrol user. We've got no intention of doing it / 2
2-
Prime Minister: ( continued)
and that has been made perfectly plain, because this is in an
area of State responsibility, they could have and have known
of the problems coming up for a long time and they have also
known that there are alternatives open to them. They shouldn't
have got themselves in this position. The physical problem
of the trucks is worst in N. S. W. and that was handled worst
by the N. S. W. Premier, who instead of getting his police to
move trucks on as they started to pull up and they all have
plenty of powers under their normal processes of doing that
because the trucks were obstructing traffic spent the time
instead passing legislation which he is not prepared to use,
as I am advised. If there was a request from the States to the
Comnionwealth, that is obviously something that we would consider
very seriously but it would need to be a request from the States.
It is in fact something that I discussed with Sir Charles earlier
this afternoon. But he said that he had no problem because
the Western Australian police have in fact been moving trucks
on and making sure that they don't obstruct traffic.
Question: Sir Charles blames Mr. Nixon very heavily for having told the
States to take off the road maintenance tax without any
suggestion of an alternative.
Prime Minister:
That's been said on a number of occasions, but really it was the
Premier of Queensland who spelt the end of the road maintenance tax
because once he made the decision he did which is entirely
his independent Queensland decision I think it meant the end of the
road maintenance tax. I've made it perfectly plain that the
Commonwealth doesn't want to be a party to negotiating under
pressure. Mr. Nixon has said he will not speak with the truckies
until they are back at normal work and that is the position as
it will be. If truck drivers at Razorback are staying out
because they believe the Commonwealth will pick up some bills
for the States, I think by now they would be totally
disabused because we are not going to. Whether it is truck drivers
or whether it is some other union, we are totally opposed to
negotiating under pressure and I regret that the States put
themselVes in the position of appearing to concede under pressure;
and that is irrespective of the merits of a particular case.
It's always possible to hear a case if it is in the normal
industrial processes through arbitration and you don't need
industrial pressure to strengthen the logic of it. In this
particular instance, the matters can be argued without disrupting
tens of thousands of other people and families and businesses
and causing harm to the public. Let me just make it plain, the
Commonwealth or Mr. Nixon for the Commonwealth will not be
speaking to the truck drivers until this is over and I regret
that there is the appearance of the States making concessions
to this particular industry under threat. It's worth noting
that once the States went down that particular path the truck
drivers expanded their demands very considerably into the
abolition of sales tax on tyres and matters of that kind. Those
matters are not open for negotiation at all. / 3
3
Question: Just on the question of physical resources to move the
trucks. One would presume that would include the Army.
Have you considered that as an option, among the
resources you would have to...
Prime Minister:
Let me only say that the Commonwealth has over the last couple
of days, been looking to see what it could do if there was a
request to clear the highways by the States. I think it is
natural enough that we would examine our own resources in
relation to that.
Question:
Do you have a contingency plan, sir?
Prime Minister:
Not at this point. We are examining our own resources.
Question:
Are you happy that you have the resources at the moment?
Prime Minister:
There will be a report waiting for me when I get back to
Melbourne or first thing tomorrow morning.
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