The next Australian government should reduce costs for families and businesses by supporting the trucking industry to use longer, safer trucks, says Australian Trucking Association chair Mark Parry.
Mr Parry made the call at the 2025 Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters’ Association (ALRTA) and Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers’ Association (LBRCA) conference in Canberra this week where he released the ATA’s productivity and carbon emissions policy for the 2025 election.
“We’ve heard a lot in this election campaign about the cost of living,” Mr Parry said. “Better government policies to improve the trucking industry’s productivity would save a typical Australian household more than $400 a year on their everyday purchases.”
“To achieve this, the next Australian government should invest an extra $5 billion over 10 years in targeted road upgrades to link up high productivity and zero tailpipe emission truck networks and to make the road network more resilient.”
“High productivity trucks, such as 36.5 m long A-doubles, reduce the cost of moving freight and the amount of fuel you use. These trucks can only operate on defined networks, and often all that’s stopping their increased use is a single stretch of road, an intersection or an outdated bridge.”
“The government needs to eliminate these gaps, accompanied by changes tostate networks. It also needs to press on with changing the national truck law and introducing a national automated access system to reduce the need for special access permits.”
Mr Parry called on the next government to repeal mandatory climate reporting, which is already in force and will apply to businesses with more than 100 employees from mid-2027.
“Climate change is happening. We need to track our emissions – you can’t manage what you can’t measure – but mandatory reporting imposes yet more unnecessary requirements on businesses. There is no reason the bureau of statistics can’t just do a survey,” he said.
Mr Parry said the next government should support the domestic production of renewable diesel, aiming for Australia’s diesel supply to be 5% renewable before the end of the 2030s:
“Australia’s trucking industry is diverse,” he said. “We haul long, heavy loads in remote areas. It is simply not possible to replace diesel trucks for much of our freight task.”
Mr Parry said renewable diesel could be used in existing diesel engines. “We need to produce it domestically to reduce emissions and strengthen Australia’s fuel security.”
He said the next government should address greenhouse gas and noxious emissions in Australia’s cities by introducing a voucher scheme covering half the price difference between comparable electric and diesel truck models.
“Battery electric trucks are available now; they are ideal for urban and near-urban freight tasks,” he said.
“The next government should make it easier for businesses to buy these trucks by covering half the cost difference.
“Because the vouchers would be handled through truck dealerships, the tens of thousands of small trucking businesses and other small businesses that use trucks would be able to take up this opportunity.”
Australia’s wood and wood product supply chain is dominated by road and is complex, with different processing steps depending on the type of wood and its end purpose. Latest figures show about 86.6% of domestic freight for the forest and forest products industry is hauled by road, 12% by rail and 1.4% by coastal shipping.
The Australian Trucking Association is a united voice for its members on trucking issues of national importance. Through its 11 member associations, the ATA represents the 60,000 businesses and 200,000 people who make up the trucking industry.
