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WA trucking remains unconvinced on national law

WARTA continues to give NHVR short shrift given state's fraction of interstate business

 

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) attempts to woo the Western Australian trucking industry have come to nothing, with the sector still maintaining it does not need national truck laws.

NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto recently emphasised the need for WA and the Northern Territory to follow the rest of Australia by enacting the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), but WA Transport Association (WARTA) CEO Ian King does not see that happening anytime soon.

He says the industry and the WA Government firmly believe the existing state-based heavy vehicle framework is best and that the NHVR cannot demonstrate why WA should change.

“Ain’t going to be on. Our [transport] minister and the shadow minister have both said show us why we should be [part of it] and we’ll support it,” King says.

“We’re looking at what is happening over there [in the eastern states].

“Do we need it in WA since 97 or 98 per cent of the business is intrastate?

“We’ve got about 2 or 2.5 per cent that is interstate and about 80 per cent of that is on rail. You don’t see trucks going across from Perth to Melbourne.”

Petroccitto told this year’s Trucking Australia conference the adoption of the HVNL in WA and the NT was critical to delivering regulatory consistency and that both jurisdictions would eventually act.

“We will get WA into the tent at some point in the future. We cannot have a national regulator without the Northern Territory and WA there. It’s just a matter of time,” he told the conference.

Petroccitto hopes new fatigue management templates the NHVR has developed will encourage WA and the NT to rethink their opposition to the HVNL.

Both jurisdictions have cited fatigue management and heavy vehicle access conditions as key reasons why they are not prepared to adopt a national regulatory framework.

 

 

Photography: Greg Bush

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