Talks held in Brisbane yesterday with the QLD state government have failed to avert the looming National Transport Shutdown.
Shutdown Convener and private transport owner & operator Mick Pattel updates us on the outcomes of his meeting with QLD Transport Minister John Mickel (pictured) and Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams.
Mick Pattel private Livestock Transport owner & operator (pictured below) reports:
“The Qld Transport Minister John Mickel and three members of his staff were gracious enough to give us an hour and a half of their time on Saturday morning (19th July 2008).
Liz Schmidt attended the meeting with me as a part of the delegation and she is able to verify the outcome of the meeting. Liz is the President of the Queensland Livestock Transport Association (QLTA) however she was there in here capacity as a private transport owner / operator and not representing the QLTA.
Unfortunately I can only report that we did not resolve the issues at hand. The biggest sticking point was the removal of demerit points from log book breaches, and on that point the talks broke down.
I do however believe that the Minister is now acutely aware what needs to happen to avert this shutdown, we are not scheduled to meet again at this point.
We still have not met with anyone in the Federal Government and expect that the standoff there may continue, which is unfortunate.”
Following the meeting Tom Desmond owner operator of Emerald Refrigeration Transport joined Mick & Liz at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) building to meet with with QLD TWU secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) and some of his people.
Mick reported on that meeting:
“Hughie gave us about one and a half hours of his time, it was a friendly and constructive meeting that made them aware of the reasons we are taking this action.
Hughie fell short of giving us full support however he didn’t condemn our efforts to head off these reforms. He told us he would wait and see how much support we received as a result of the shutdown before joining us. The TWU have 15,000 members across QLD.
I believe that the TWU are genuine in their concerns for where the industry is going and need some positive direction from the real people in the industry. It always seems that the minorities get the most attention and they do not represent or portray any of the true issues, and never offer realistic solutions.
I thank Liz and Tom for their support and their input and everyone driving this program. Our delegates across Australia are doing a great job in giving people the information and building support.”
Below is the names and contact details of the movements delegates. If you’d like to contact them or pass it onto your local transport operator so they can contact them to join the movement.
QLD - Mick Pattel Mob 0429-413161 Ph 0747413161
NSW - Leo Fardell Ph 0268844433 Mob 0429844433
VIC - Darryl Brown Ph 0354353589 Mob 0408322868
Western VIC & SA - Russell Borchard Ph 0350243247 Mob 0419007815
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Tags: Hughie Williams, John Mickel, Mick Pattel, Transport
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