RURAL TRUCKING MATTERS
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROMA
In a period of stop/start lockdowns and limited social interaction, rural Queensland, which has remained relatively Covid-free, finally hosted the twice delayed annual conference of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Queensland in Roma.
T
his year marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Queensland. After its formation back in 1981 the rest of the states in Australia followed the original model used in Queensland, forming organisations representing livestock transporters across the country. Then this grouping of livestock transporters decided to create an organisation which would represent all of the of states associations federally, the organisation again developed a new model. The formation the Australian Livestock Transporters Association (as it was then) structure would later be followed by the rest of the Australian transport industry when forming the national association representing trucking interests, which is now known as the Australian Trucking Association. The connection here being Bruce McIver, who was involved in that first meeting of the Queensland Association back in 1981, becoming this association’s first president. He was then later involved in the formation of the ALTA and, became its first president. Later, his involvement in the formation of what would become the ATA, lead to the organisation following the ALTA’s model and also appointing him as its first chairman. Leaving history aside, the job of the conference in Roma was to represent the needs and wishes of the LRTAQ both on a state and national level. As is quite often the case in conferences concerning the livestock and rural road transport industries, there was a diverse selection of politicians in the room. Present was Scott Buchholz, Federal
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POWERTORQUE September/October 2021
2021 Young Person in Transport Award winner, Damien Swalling, from Swalling Livestock Transport.
Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport, Queensland Senator Susan McDonald, Queensland MP Kim Richards, representing Transport Minister, Mark Bailey, plus Steve Minnikin, Queensland Shadow Minister for Transport and Main Roads and local Mayor Sean Dillon. “Perhaps the greatest challenge to the Queensland livestock transport industry at the moment, and this is probably true throughout our national association is a shortfall in our workforce and attracting drivers and other people,” said Gerard Johnson, LRTAQ President. “We need to find ways to attract them into the industry and at the moment we have improve efficiency to take up the slack caused by the lack of labour available.” These sentiments were echoed by a local politician, Barcaldine Regional
Council Mayor, Sean Dillon. “I thank god that the Queensland beef industry is a couple of million head down and there’s been a big shift towards feedlotting, because if and when we go back to moving large numbers of grass-fed slaughter cattle, you won’t have enough trucks,” said Sean. “If you do have enough trucks, you won’t have enough drivers. Short of fixing the human resources issue, having bigger combinations moving further than they currently can is a solution, or a stop-gap solution.” For the perspective from the national agenda the conferene heard from an LRTAQ stalwart and ALRTA Vice President, Ian Wild. “These are testing times,“ said Ian. “We’ve had droughts, fires, floods, trade wars and a global pandemic, but Australia has pulled through remarkably well. After experiencing shortages of farm and consumer necessities, Australians now better recognise the essential role of the trucking industry in this country. “Moving drought-stricken stock to better pasture, delivering fodder after fires, emergency livestock movements or just restocking toilet paper at the supermarket, there are people who thank you dearly. “When truck stop cafes and showers were forced to close, we were the first to raise the issue with government, and get these places operating again. When border crossing rules were unworkable, we sought improvements.” It has been two years since the last LRTAQ conference, so there was a lot to catch up on for Mathew Munro, the ALRTA Executive Director, as he brought the Queenslanders up to date with other issues on the national scene.
