Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport, Scott Buchholz has addressed the 79th conference of the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia (RWTA).
The event, which took place this year in Noosa, put a focus on trade impacts on Australia’s cold chain in a world disrupted by COVID-19.
Assistant Minister Buchholz said COVID acted as a catalyst for panic buying, which put an enormous strain on the freight and supply chain, including the members of the RWTA.
“We saw supermarkets shelves and fridges cleared and the industry working around the clock to meet this demand,” he said.
“And at every event the industry, our truckies and freight and logistics workers rose to the challenge” said Buchholz.
As one of the keynote speakers at the conference, Assistant Minister Buchholz highlighted the substantial Federal Government investment in road infrastructure and taxation measures available to transport businesses in recovering from COVID 19 related shutdowns.
“Rebuilding our economy from COVID means building more roads, bridges and transport infrastructure,” he said.
“We’re investing $110 billion over ten years from 2020-21 in transport infrastructure across Australia through our rolling infrastructure plan. Never in Australia’s history have we not spent more on transport infrastructure to bust congestion, better connect our regions, improve safety on our roads and meet our national freight challenge” said Buchholz.
“Another way we are helping businesses like yours bounce back from COVID is through business-friendly taxation measures.”
According to Buchholz, measures such as the Instant Asset Write Off, Temporary Full Expensing and Loss Carry Back Offset were friendly to not only business but also investments and jobs.
“It’s about getting business back to what they do best and that is supporting our country and creating jobs” Buchholz said.