You’ll be aware of our campaign to stop the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal.
We can now advise that, as of 4.10pm today in Sydney, the High Court confirmed the filing of Independent Contractors Australia’s constitutional challenge to the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal Act. ICA is asking the High Court to consider that the Commonwealth does not have the power to fix prices and therefore that the RSRT Act is invalid and that any orders of the Tribunal are consequently invalid.
ICA has at the same time asked for an urgent injunction against the Tribunal and its orders that would effectively freeze the Tribunal’s orders until such time as the constitutional questions have been answered. We are in the hands of the High Court in terms of the timing of an injunction decision. We hope it will be soon.
Last week we asked for your owner-driver stories. We have been inundated. We have not been able to reply or process the huge number. But our massive thanks. We worked with several people to turn their stories into affidavits which involves a lot of work for filing with the High Court. We will ring these people to thank them.
This is the first phase of a lot of work. We may need to use many more stories in affidavits.
Thanks also to the huge number of people who have joined ICA. Your money is going to the legal fees but we will need to raise a good deal more. Lawyers for High Court challenges are expensive.
We will keep you informed.