‘Truckies keep Australia moving, not politicians,’ was the message displayed through the truck blockade at Reedy Creek on Monday morning.
Two trucks parked across the south-bound lanes of the M1 Motorway on the Gold Coast, stopped traffic for more than an hour and caused congestion that backed up cars for several kilometres.
The protest against lockdown orders around the country as well as vaccine ‘mandates’ lasted for over an hour before police could clear the trucks after 7.30am.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson attended the protest, where groups of people stood on the blocked M1 lanes.
“It’s BS,” Ms Hanson told reporters Monday morning.
“I want to see this country opened up.”
Queensland Health Minister Y’vette D’ath criticised the truck drivers, pointing out they were some of the few citizens exempt from state border restrictions.
“The reality [is], they’re able to move back and forth over borders when many, many other people around this country can’t,” she said.
“We know that our truck drivers do a very critical job across this country, they keep supply moving that’s why there have been special exemptions for truck drivers, from day one.
“The national cabinet decision is not about vaccinations but testing.
“National cabinet has agreed no matter where they move around the country they must undergo a certain testing regime.”
National Cabinet issued an updated Freight Movement Protocol and Code last week.
The standardised rules were agreed upon by transport ministers and aim to uniform requirements on interstate goods movement.
The updated code requires freight workers crossing state and territory borders to have a negative Covid-19 test result in a rolling seven-day period, unless an alternative arrangement for a particular jurisdiction is otherwise specified in the Code's annex.
In some cases, workers may also need to be tested more frequently depending on particular requirements in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, but the agreement means more than half the jurisdictions will be following a single, simple approach to testing.
Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport Scott Buchholz said the ‘streamlined’ set of rules would ensure freight could move efficiently with testing as consistent as possible - but vaccinations for truckies was still encouraged.
“I am encouraging all freight workers to get vaccinated as soon as you are eligible, to help protect your community, and I commend those transport operators who are assisting with the vaccination effort within the sector,” he said.
“States and territories are also setting up additional testing facilities along key freight routes, intermodals and hubs to assist freight workers to more readily access testing facilities, in line with AHPPC advice.
“These streamlined testing rules complement all the COVID-safe practices our freight workers already comply with to help keep the community safe, like social distancing, using masks and hand sanitiser, and checking in to assist contact tracing.”