WESTERN Australia Senator Glenn Sterle is to attend and address the Victorian Transport Association State Conference 2019, much to the VTA’s delight as the senator had years of extensive experience as the shadow assistant minister for road transport and safety before being elected to the Senate in 2004 and is well-versed in the freight industry.
VTA CEO Peter Anderson said, “Glenn has been a passionate advocate for road safety over his three terms in the Australian Senate where he has been active on numerous rural and regional affairs and transport committees.”
According to Mr Anderson, Senator Sterle has been a long-standing, vocal advocate for road safety and has perspectives formed over decades of work in the industry that would add greatly to the conference.
Senator Sterle is well-known for his critique of the Department of immigration and border control as a member of the parliamentary committee examining the Sage Sagittarius case back in 2012. The Senator accused the department of a breakdown in security as a known and corrupt captain, suspected of playing a large role in the disappearance of three people aboard the vessel, worked on the Australian coastline without government disruption for eight months.
The Sydney Morning Harold reported Senator Sterle saying, “I think someone [in the bureaucracy] was asleep at the wheel,” in 2012 during a Senate hearing in Canberra.
The VTA State Conference 2019 has taken on the theme of “Keeping Up With Transport Reform”, in regards to the many reviews of driver licensing, training, road user charges and heavy vehicle law being done across the industry.
Other topics to be discussed and lead by experts in the State Conference include infrastructure; law and punishment; reforms to the HVNL; industrial relations; and safety.
The conference is to be held at the Silverwater Resort on Phillip Island and 200 delegates are expected to attend over a two-day period.
