THE SOUTHERN
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1986
MAY, 2016
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FARMER TO FARMER
PASTURE PAGES 6-7
WINTER WARMTH PAGE 10
PAGE 13
Truck tribunal dumped by parliament
SHEEDY’S RURAL SUPPORT WELL-known for his support of the farming industry, Kevin Sheedy will shed light on his vision for rural Australia at the gala dinner, which celebrates Victoria’s $12 billion agricultural industry, showcasing locally grown produce and the people who produce it. Now in its fourth year, the Agriculture: The Heart of Victoria dinner is the premier event on the Victorian agriculture social calendar and will be held on Thursday, June 9 at Central Pier, Docklands. Tickets for the dinner, presented by the Victorian Farmers Federation and The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, can be purchased online at www.bit.ly/Heartof Victix2016.
Controversial Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal scrapped by House and Senate
FARMING ADVOCATE: AFL legend Kevin Sheedy is the key note speaker at the 2016 Agriculture: The Heart of Victoria gala dinner which will be held at Melbourne’s Docklands next month.
FARMERS and mum-anddad owner operators of small trucking businesses that would have been hit hard by the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) are breathing a sigh of relief after the controversial order was abolished in Parliament. The RSRT was scrapped after the Senate voted 36 to 32 in favour of getting rid of the body. The Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF) welcomed the decision with vice-president David Jochinke having said that the tribunal and its order was “ridiculous” in its decision to set minimum payment rates for contractors placing a huge burden on farmers and small truck owner-drivers. “Our farmers faced the real risk of having fewer, more expensive options of transporting their produce to market
BY JODIE FLEMING
jfleming@ nemedia.com.au
because the small owner operators looked like being priced right out of the market,” he said. Legislation to repeal the Road Safety Remuneration Act 2012 was passed with the support of seven crossbench senators, some of whom had reversed their original position. Repealing the act will abolish the RSRT and invalidate both the Road Transport and Distribution and Long Distance Operations Road Safety Remuneration Order 2014 and Contractor Driver Minimum Payments Order 2016 (2016 Order), which were enforced under the tribunal. The controversial Contractor Driver Minimum
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Payments Order 2016, which stipulates new minimum prices for contracted transport services, had been in force since early April despite efforts by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) and Australian Trucking Association to have it delayed. “This has been a great result for both the agriculture sector and small transport operators because the tribunal was trying to enforce an order on small businesses, many of them families, that they didn’t understand, with little effort being made to help them understand,” Mr Jochinke said. “It’s a complex issue that many people had trouble understanding, so it’s comforting to see politicians in Canberra make a decision that benefited people already doing it tough.”
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