Subjects: Ron Crouch Transport voluntary administration
E&OE
STARTS: 4.04pm
ENDS: 4.15pm
MELINDA HAYTER
Michael McCormack, I guess, what’s your reaction to the news that Ron Crouch Transport has gone into voluntary administration?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I’m sad and disturbed, quite frankly, that this has happened. This company has been going for 47 years, been delivering for regional Australians, and Australians generally, for decades and they employ more than 100 people. They’re renowned right across the transport sector for, not just the way they operate, but the respect that they very much endeared amongst their customers and amongst those people who use their services and the whole sector was very much at a high point and to see them go under in this way just before Christmas is really, really disappointing. Geoff and Ron, son and father, have been synonymous with the transport industry for many, many years. They’ve both served on stakeholder groups and peak body organisations, talking about road safety, ensuring that the standards that they set were adopted by the industry, and to see a company such as this going to voluntary administration, on the back of so many other companies, Excel Express, DJK Transport, Don Watson Transport, Transtar Line, Regent Logistics, Newnham Trucking, you know, there’s been a litany of big companies, with lots of trucks and many, many employees going insolvent, going broke. This is not the way that this should happen. And, you know, I really think the Transport Minister, indeed, even the Prime Minister, should take a good, long, hard look at this and see what they can do to help salvage an industry which is under fire at the moment, like never before. I don’t understand just why this has gone so badly so quickly but you see over-regulation, you see companies coming in with sham contracting, you see a lot of undercutting going on at the moment in the transport sector and something has to give there has to be some sort of summit, some sort of get together by figures across the transport sector, by unions, by Government, to see what can be done to address this issue because it is critical. Everybody relies on trucking, without trucking, Australia stops. It is that vital. And at the moment, obviously there are problems with respected companies, such as Ron Crouch Transport, going under or struggling to make ends meet and something has to give.
MELINDA HAYTER
Now, you’ve called on the Government to take action here. Obviously, you’ve got skin in the game as a former Regional Transport Minister, so you have an intimate understanding of how it works. What would you like to see Government do in this space?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, there’s so much regulation. There’s the heavy vehicle transport body that runs the ruler over everything. And I know safety has to be first and foremost, but you talk to the Australian Trucking Association, they will tell you there is sham contracting going on. There are companies that are undercutting. I see in New Zealand just recently they did a full audit of drivers and found a number of them should not have been, in fact, behind the wheel of heavy rigs in that country, I’m not saying that’s going on here in Australia, but I do think we have to put everything on the table. I do think we need to look at the contracting that’s going on across the industry, and I’d urge government to have a talk to the Peter Rodney’s, to the Ron Finemore’s, to the Geoff Crouch’s of the world, to see exactly what is going on and have the summit, if need be, behind closed doors so that they can lay their cards out on the table in an open, honest, transparent way. They’ll always be honest with you. Those people who are running those trucking companies, those ones I mentioned, will always be upfront and honest, you’ll always find out exactly what they’re thinking. But they need to do it away from the glares of the cameras and the media so that they can get out on the table exactly what’s going on and get the Government to address some of these things, which are obviously besetting the industry and making it so hard for companies to turn a profit. Now, a lot of this has happened post-COVID, I appreciate that. But of course, regulations and just compliance, I’d call it, I know there has to be safety, it has to be number one, and it always is with the trucking sector. You know, a lot of people will often point their finger at the trucking sector, but more than 90 per cent of the accidents happen crashes that occur involving a heavy vehicle are not, repeat, not the fault of the heavy vehicle driver, it’s usually the other way around. And, you know, they get a bad rap sometimes, but I say again, without trucking, Australia stops. They deliver everything, absolutely everything. And during COVID, they were magnificent because without them, Australia wouldn’t have been rated by the John Hopkins Centre as the second best in the world for COVID preparedness. They transported vaccines, they transported personal protection equipment, and they did it in the time necessary to save lives and to save livelihoods.
MELINDA HAYTER
If the behaviour within the industry is as unscrupulous as you’re describing, you know, is there grounds here for a Royal Commission-style investigation?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, something needs to happen, and I’m not suggesting that there’s anything unscrupulous going on, but I just think there’s obviously some factors that are at play and it’s not just over-regulation, bureaucracy and just the thin margins that they operate. There’re obviously other things going on, but they need to be able to discuss that in a format such that Government can listen and act accordingly. And that isn’t always the way, like we had recently with the Productivity Summit that was all out in the open. It was just a, quite frankly, it was a gab fest, a union fest, a media stunt. We need to really seriously look at this. The construction industry is in free fall at the moment too, we’ve had something in the order of 30,000 small businesses go to the wall just in the last three years. This cannot continue. And I realise that we’re in a cost-of-living crisis, but when you’re in a crisis of sorts that it’s bringing big and respected trucking companies, companies that have been going for decades, down, then something has to happen and the Transport Minister should be taking urgent action to get these peak bodies together, these trucking heads together and see in fact what she can do and the Government can do to rectify it.
MELINDA HAYTER
Obviously, the trucking industry, like many industries in Australia, is going through a period of transition, with the net zero transition, and I know your political party has made some decisions in that space regarding the transition. But I guess as we move forward through this transition and the fuel that goes into our truck’s changes, do you think this is a sign of things to come? I know you’ve made mention, you know, there’s been a bit of a trend in recent years in this area, but is this a bit of a premonition as to what to expect over coming years?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, Linfox and Ron Finemore have done a lot of work in making sure that trucking emissions are as low as possible, and the trucking industry per se has done that, I mean, the fleet that is operating in Australia is probably one of the youngest and the most modern of the Western world. And so, you know, I pay full credit to the trucking companies for investing in their future and to investing in low emissions technology. But this isn’t about climate action. This is about action to save an industry which keeps this nation running, and this is what is needed. And I think the Transport Minister, Catherine King, should come out today, if not tomorrow, and tell us all what she’s going to do about it. Because the list of trucking companies that I gave earlier is way too long. And that list will only increase if something isn’t done, and done drastically, and done now.
MELINDA HAYTER
So, you’re calling on Minister Catherine King to take action?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Absolutely. We need a summit, we need a real tangible summit, and before Christmas, get these trucking companies together, get these heads, whether it’s a teleconference or whether it’s in person in Canberra, doesn’t matter. But it needs to happen and needs to happen quickly because we can’t afford to have any more trucking companies go to the wall. I mean, Watson’s have been going for decades and decades as well. It’s one of the big coal storage companies and it found it couldn’t turn a profit. Now, when a company like that and a company Ron Crouch Transport, run by Geoff Crouch now, his son, they also find it hard to turn a dollar, then something is seriously wrong in the industry. And I appreciate that we’ve got Hawk Logistics, they’ve moved into the country in recent times and they’re doing some things that is helping them to make a profit, but it should be right across the board. Every trucking company shouldn’t have B-doubles backed up against their wall in the car park or their fence in the yard. They should be able to be making a profit. It’s hard to find drivers, it’s hard, obviously, to make ends meet, and something, something must be done to rectify this absolute dilemma within our country. Because, you know, our transport operators, they need to see that the Government is acting, and they need to see the Government is acting now.
MELINDA HAYTER
Michael McCormack, anything else you’d like to add?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
The only other thing I would say is that they also need to see that road infrastructure funding, particularly in regional areas, is happening. It hasn’t been happening at a rate that has been necessary and conducive to good driving in recent years, not that I’m saying that that’s caused this collapse of infrastructure, Ron Crouch transport, but we do need to see a bigger and better commitment to lay down some real asphalt in regional Australia because that’s where the action is happening. That’s where so many of the goods are being transported from paddock to port, from our country areas to our city populations. And we haven’t seen the real credible investment in regional Australia that we should have since Labor took office.
MELINDA HAYTER
Thank you, Michael.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Thanks, Melinda, all the very best.