12 th May 2017 THANK YOU TO ALL OUR 2017 SPONSORS
The SARTA 2017 Industry Breakfast, Conference and Gala Dinner Edition 1. Rave Reviews for the 2017 SARTA Conference and Dinner We also thank the following speakers: 1. Sal Petroccitto, CEO of the NHVR; We have received rave reviews from truck operators, suppliers, sponsors and officials for the SARTA Breakfast, Conference and Dinner held on Saturday 6 th May: A huge THANK YOU to all those involved in making the event a success including all of our sponsors, auction donors breakfast, conference and dinner attendees and our great crew and in particular Corey Banks on the right in the photo here with Sharon Middleton and Liam Connole, and all the helpers who put it all together. 2. Michael Deegan, CEO of DPTI; and 3. Shane McEvoy of CMV Kenworth DAF who kicked off the day discussing, with 70 guests at the SARTA breakfast, Roadworthiness, changes within the NHVR and within DPTI as well as the way ahead including possible changes in the approach to accreditation, which caused considerable consternation among the operators, who expressed a lot of concern about constant regulatory changes.
The Conference then followed the breakfast and over 100 delegates hearing presentations from and then asking questions of: 4. Sharon Middleton, President of SARTA who spoke about what we need; 5. Stephen Mullighan, Minister for Transport spoke about the Government s plans; 6. Craig Latham from the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman; 7. Neville John of KJK Legal who, with Craig, spoke about unfair contracts and how to avoid or deal with them (this session left a lot of people looking a little glum but far better informed). The take away point. get legal advice; 8. Michael Crellin and Chris Kummerow of the NHVR spoke in detail about the CoR reforms and the effect on operators, as well as how CoR Investigations and Prosecutions will now be run and managed by the NHVR in SA, the role having been handed over from SAPol. SAPol were not in attendance for the first time in 21 years, which was a disappointing missed opportunity for what has always been effective liaison with operators.
The discussion got a little more lively later in the afternoon as SARTA's Steve Shearer pressed home the industry's genuine and justified concerns about s245 of the HV National Law; providing, in response to NHVR comments, a brief history lesson on the development of the law and s245 in particular drawing upon his direct involvement in that and explaining why the precursor to s245 in each States' previous legislation (which were all replaced by the HV national Law) never had any effect because the WA and NT Governments refused to legislate the necessary companion provisions in their own law that would actually give effect to the s245 provisions in other States. So s245 of the HVNL has effectively repeated a mistake and in our view it must be fixed, as a priority. s245 of the HVNL provides that if a HV driver goes from the other states into WA or the NT and comes back out again within 7 days then all the time spent by that driver in WA or the NT is actually covered by the HV National Law (ie as if it was time worked within SA, Qnlnd, NSW or VIC). This means that those drivers can NOT legally use the actual WA or NT laws. So any BFM or Standard Hours driver going into WA or the NT and back out again within 7 days would be guilty of serious and very expensive Fatigue rules breaches if they utilised the 15 to 16 hrs work per day rules that apply in WA or the NT. SARTA is leading a national campaign to fix this because it is intolerable and unjust. Many, including numerous lawyers, doubt the constitutionality of s245 BUT SARTA IS NOT PREPARED TO LEAVE IT AT THAT as it should not be up to operators to have to run major test cases in court at their own expense. The industry needs certainty so we are not going to back off until this is fixed and Steve Shearer ensured that nobody at the Conference was left in any doubt about that. That said, overall it was a very good, positive and productive. There were a number of new members attending their first SARTA Conference and they have told us that it really opened their eyes, on the issues and on just how effective and influential SARTA is as an industry body. It was very clear to them, as well as to all those who have attended before, that SARTA works very closely and effectively with the State and Federal Governments and agencies in pursuing the best outcomes for the trucking industry. A number of operators, including some from interstate, told us that they would be lost without SARTA and we have had many messages thanking us for all our hard work on their and the industry s behalf. There was a lot of interest out there in the industry too, as shown by the high level of hits on the various SARTA Facebook posts that we issued during the event.
2. Congratulations Joshua Beattie of Beattie Transport Congratulions Joshua (Josh) Beattie: SARTA's Kym Brennand Memorial Young Achiever of the Year Award recipient. Josh is pictured here with Mal and Glenise Beattie along with James Marrow of Penske, the Award sponsor, Josh was caught by surprise by the Award but when you consider his achievements since he got his first Truck at 9 years of age, it was well deserved. 3. Congratulations Danial McFee and Malcom McBeath of Gilberts Congratulations to Danial McFee and Malcom McBeath, both drivers for Gilberts Transport Services. They made history as the first dual winners of the Jim Crawford Memorial Award for Employee of the Year at the gala SARTA dinner on Saturday 6 May. Peter and Lorraine Gilbert (centre) could not fairly separate these two and neither could we... so they were made worthy joint winners. The Award was announced by Johno Crawford of CMV Kenworth DAF, sponsors of the Award and a great supporter of SARTA. Danial and Malcom have been nominated for the national Award, to be announced in Darwin in June.
4. SA Infrastructure Does Poorly in Federal Budget This week s federal budget was bad news for SA as far as major infrastructure funding goes there wasn t any!!! NO new infrastructure funding and NO additional funding for the completion of the North-South Corridor (ie the South Rd upgrade). That much is fact. What s not so clear, given all the posturing on both sides of politics about this, is WHY. The State Government has been at great pains to point out that we got nothing, despite all its work and proposals to secure funds. The Federal Government was arguing that SA had not made it case or submitted what was required to secure funds. We contacted the Federal Government and were advised directly by Ministers senior staff that SA has not submitted any proposals and full business cases for any component of the North South Corridor since the Torrens-to-Torrens component of the project, which is now well under way, was funded. Hmmmmmmmmm!... 5. SARTA and NHVR Regional Sessions on CoR Reforms SA Regional Sessions on the CoR reforms will be run by the NHVR and SARTA in the week beginning 26 th June. The tentative proposed dates and locations are: 1. Port Augusta 26 Jun 2. Adelaide 27 Jun 3. Renmark 28 Jun 4. Mt Gambier 29 Jun Watch this space for details as they are finalised. 6. NHVR CoR Brochures on their Way to You The NHVR wanted to provide the brand new CoR brochures to delegates at the SARTA Conference but sadly they didn t arrive in time. SARTA has agreed to handle the new NHVR CoR material as soon as it arrives here and we will package it up and send it out through the mail. In addition, here is a link to the CoR materials on the NHVR site. www.nhvr.gov.au/cor We will also email out the NHVR CoR brochures to all members in pdf format.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2tfcpoh102ufoyf/aabiwckmafv2pfrwqmhrjj5ha?dl=0