January 6, 2022
Truck drivers need urgent access to COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to keep the country rolling, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) candidate for Herbert, Clynton Hawks, has said. The current national shortage of rapid antigen tests means that some occupational groups, such as truck drivers, should be classified as essential workers and be prioritized in receiving whatever tests are available, and that federal and state governments need to co-ordinate to ensure that happens, Mr Hawks said.
“What we have is a perfect storm where truck drivers—the ones delivering the tests to chemists and supermarkets—are being forced off the road while they wait for the very tests they are hauling,” Mr Hawks said.
“All essential workers should be given instant access to RATs, and we need to get people back to work and building a strong economy,” Mr Hawks said.
Mr Hawks, a trucking operator, has made the call for State and Federal governments to step in following widespread reports that supermarket shelves are emptying, with reports that up to half of all truck drivers are self-isolating following a close contact exposure. [1]
Mr Hawks said changing the testing criteria for truck drivers and other essential workers doesn’t alleviate the problem, because anyone exhibiting symptoms or who fears close contact exposure still needs confirmation of COVID-19.
“The bottom line is truck drivers like all workers will still need to be tested to see if they have COVID, regardless of whatever government directions are in place,” Mr Hawks said.
“The only thing, in the current situation, that will help get trucks back on the road is access to testing for truck drivers, whether that’s PCR or RAT,” Mr Hawks said.
“Like everyone else, truck drivers can’t get them because they are stuck in warehouses because of a breakdown in the supply chain caused, in part, by a shortage of truck drivers,” Mr Hawks said.
“Government action is immediately required to fix the supply chain issues,” Mr Hawks said.
“For that to happen, we need to see from government a much greater willingness to intervene in the market to make sure tests are free and freely available,” Mr Hawks said.
“Letting ‘COVID rip’ doesn’t mean letting market forces rip,” Mr Hawks said.
“The reason COVID is tearing through our nation right now and causing unprecedented chaos in just about every corner of the economy is because we have a federal government that is ideologically-committed to free market principles regardless of the damage unfettered markets can cause,” Mr Hawks said.
“Market failures need to be addressed and to do that you need to have a mindset to address them,” Mr Hawks said.
“This is where the government is falling down,” Mr Hawks said.
https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/supply-chain-crunch-as-up-to-half-of-truckies-isolating-20220105-p59m22