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Labor's sweeping workplace reforms will be pushed through in a Senate vote on Thursday after a "massive win" for businesses servicing the agricultural supply chain.
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Independent senator David Pocock delivered the vote the government needed to pass its Closing Loopholes legislation late Wednesday after it agreed to 60 pages of amendments, including carving out livestock and rural transporters from the Bill's new road transport provisions.
Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association executive director Rachel Smith said removing members from the proposed universal rate had averted a range of potential negative domino effects on productivity, from risk of business closures to a food security crisis.
![Independent Senator David Pocock. Picture by supplied. Independent Senator David Pocock. Picture by supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/230597393/84c632bd-303d-4cc3-8ffb-c82b42f7158e.jpg/r0_373_7000_4309_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The ALRTA was worried that the rural road transport sector, as a collection of vastly different business types with vastly different operating frameworks and cost structures, would have been treated the same as all other trucking operations, from bulk freight to furniture removalists.
"Our primary concern was that if you are seeing a minimum rate then that quickly becomes the ceiling and does not take into consideration the uniqueness of individual operations," she said.
"(The original Bill) did not really acknowledge that a minimum rate that will work in metropolitan areas was not necessarily going to work in a rural or regional setting. Particularly taking into account things like increased fuel costs in regions and the type of freight being transported."
The ALRTA, a federation of six state associations, is the peak body representing more than 700 road transport businesses servicing the agricultural supply chain, including owner-drivers and small and large fleet operators.
Ms Smith said there had been "grave fears" the reforms would have pushed small regional livestock carriers out of business.
![Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association executive director Rachel Smith. Picture by supplied. Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association executive director Rachel Smith. Picture by supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/230597393/5aa78ab5-6703-4b5a-b642-e3353402834b.jpeg/r0_0_652_1079_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Livestock transport is a key contributor to our regional communities and forms a crucial part of our supply chains in Australia," Ms Smith said.
"If you do not have these businesses you not only have less supply but higher prices on supermarket shelves.
"It is a massive win for the industry and we are very grateful to the government for taking on the feedback and advice and to the crossbench and Senator Pocock."
Meanwhile, Senator Pocock also helped secure significant amendments on key issues ranging from casuals, to regulation of the gig economy to the Greens' proposal for a right to disconnect.
"The changes the crossbench has negotiated make it a much simpler, fairer bill that preserves choice and flexibility," he said.
"If you want to remain a casual you can and existing independent contractors can now elect to keep their arrangement unchanged.
"The Government has committed to exclude Livestock transport altogether from the new road transport provisions."
In a Senate inquiry submission, the ALRTA said it did not support the setting of minimum rates as they would drive owner operators out of the market and result in market consolidation.
"Like other parts of road transport, the rural road transport sector has incredibly lean margins, in the low single digits. It is therefore imperative that businesses operate efficiently and capture all opportunities for productivity uplift," it said.
"Transport businesses have different inputs and outputs and therefore it is impossible for a universal rate to be set."
The submission said while it is "tempting" to lump all trucking businesses into the same basket, the setting of rates will "significantly advantage large transport companies" wanting to introduce uniform rates.
The submission said very little livestock carrier work was performed under an ongoing written contract, that jobs were often allocated on a piece-meal basis, particularly during seasonal highs, and that most work is ad hoc and at short notice.
"It is this short-notice, low red-tape flexibility that enables the rural road transport sector to move seasonally unpredictable farm produce to domestic and international markets as efficiently as possible," it said.