Livestock and peak body figures among prominent recipients
The road transport industry has new inclusions in the Order of Australia amongst its ranks.
David Anderson was made member (AM) while Bruce McIver, Kevin Pattel and Tony Mellick gained medals (OAMs) to became the latest industry figures to be named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Anderson was recognised for significant service to the maritime and road transport industries.
He was lauded by the ATA for his contribution as former director of safety accreditation program TruckSafe and CEO of NatRoad.
He is also a former VicRoads CEO, was involved with National Transport Commission’s (NTC) national transport reform in 2014 and spent 10 years as CEO of Ports Australia.
“David has poured countless hours into our sector,” present Ports Australia CEO Mike Gallacher says.
“His dedication to sound public policy for the logistics, freight and supply chains with a focus on ports has improved Australia.
“At the helm of Ports Australia, he was instrumental to the active policy reputation we enjoy today.
“On behalf of the ports sector, I’d like to thank him for that legacy and all his contributions to the broader sector. Congratulations on an honour well deserved.”
McIver, who co-founded the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), was recognised for his significant service to politics and the road transport industry.
McIver co-founded the ATA in 1989, held the position of chair from 1991 to 1994 and was a trust fund director from 1992 to 2015.
He was the inaugural president of the Livestock Transporters’ Association of Queensland and president of the Australian Livestock Transporters’ Association (now the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters’ Association).
The former Liberal National Party president recently had a tenure on the Australia Post board.
Current ATA chair Geoff Crouch says McIver was one of the industry leaders who recognised the need for change when the industry was genuinely in crisis.
“At the time of the horrific 1989 Grafton truck and bus crash, Bruce McIver was the president of the Australian Livestock Transporters’ Association,” Crouch says.
“He joined other industry leaders to call for practical safety measures like speed limiters and agreed to found the Road Transport Industry Forum (RTIF) to lead a national approach to safety.
“We are called the Australian Trucking Association now, but we still look back with pride at the extraordinary leadership of Bruce McIver and his counterparts thirty years ago this year.
“I know I speak for the whole of the Australian trucking industry when I say that Mr McIver is extremely deserving of this honour.”
Read about last year’s recipients from industry, here
Another link to the livestock transport industry to be honoured is Pattel, founder of KT and JE Pattel Livestock Transport.
His achievements are outlined by Katter’s Australia Party leader Bob Katter, who says: “Mr Pattel’s family were one of the pioneering families that created the live cattle haulage industry of today.
“Kevin is a powerful, influential and civic-minded person and has supported a dozen organisations in the town and if he wasn’t running them, his children would be.
“The Pattels were pioneering drovers who founded Australia’s livestock hauling industry in the 1920s.
“Kevin Pattel was instrumental in introducing volumetric loading, which reduced the cost of carting cattle by up to 20 per cent, and has been a prominent figure in the community and personally helped hundreds of people through tough times.”
Former Toll GM and Kings Transport CEO Mellick, who recently announced his new appointment as Hi-Trans Express CEO, also received honours, albeit for his service to cricket and rugby union.