What about the cost?

Some media reports have claimed that the new Tribunal will cost $228 million.

That’s being pretty loose with the figures. The Government’s proposing to give the new Tribunal a budget which is about half of what the National Transport Commission currently gets; around $5 million.

The other figures that get quoted are from the big accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. According to PwC, 29% of the owner-operators in this country are earning less than the legal minimum wage that applies to employees.

There’s a lot of dignity and independence in running your own business, but PwC reckons small owner-operators are paying a big price for that privilege.

PwC are tipping that earnings for small operators will start to go up if the Bill is passed. That $228 million is their estimate of how much extra small operators and owner-drivers should (eventually) expect to gain.

Interestingly, PwC think that rural and regional operators are the worst paid across the whole industry.

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