Coalition will be as good as its pre-election word, with the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal to be reviewed
By Rob McKay | September 23, 2013
The Coalition Government will be as good as its pre-election word, with the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) to be reviewed, a spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss confirms.
Truss’s office indicated in February that the tribunal faced scrutiny along with, more broadly, several other bodies set up under recent Labor governments.
Confirmation of the review reportedly also comes from the office of Employment Minister Eric Abetz.
An Abetz spokesman was quoted in the Australian Financial Review as saying that the Coalition is “committed to an urgent review”, under a headline that states that the tribunal was “axed”.
Though such an eventual
outcome would not surprise, the headline appears to go much further than where either the new government or even its industry critics, such as the Australian Logistics Association (ALC), are positioned presently.
“ALC welcomes the Coalition’s intention to conduct a review of the Road Safety Remuneration Act,” ALC Managing Director Michael Kilgariff said in a speech to the Victorian Transport and Infrastructure Summit just after the election.
“We would like to see the review to examine whether there is any duplication between Road Safety Remuneration Orders and the Heavy Vehicle National Law and workplace-health-and-safety laws.”
A Truss spokesman says that any move on the tribunal would necessarily involve the offices of both Truss and Abetz, especially as Truss had been most involved with the then Opposition’s response its formation.
As with the previous government, there was a great deal of “crossover” between the portfolios on the subject, he adds, saying that the review would look to see “what, if any, changes need to be made” and that it would not be “something rushed or overnight”.
Despite the need to be a functioning government as early as possible, Coalition ministers are still settling in at their government offices, which are presently under-resourced and under-staffed.
These were still “early days”, the Truss spokesman says.
