The Victorian Government passed legislation and created an Owner Drivers Contract, which came into effect as of the 1st December 2006.
On perusal of the clauses in the Owner Drivers Contract appear more favourable to the Hirer, offering very little if any protection to the Owner Drivers.
In my opinion the Government should have extended invitations to all owner drivers to attend a meeting with them to discuss problems we are faced with every day regarding unfair rates and conditions.
Without Transport The Country Stops

If you want any replies of substance, you'll need to provide some references to relevant documents, such as the contract terms that you object to.

Sylvia.

What do you expect from a labor government, they will take this Australia wide and then finish the people off if they win federal government.

And they say they are for the people, yeah right.

The only people the labor party are interested in is themselves and the union bosses.

I’m not a Victorian, nor have I ever been an ‘owner driver’, but it would not be unusual if a Labor government did try to make things hard for owner drivers, many of whom have bought themselves a job after losing a job at an age where they cannot readily find another.

Labor hates ordinary individuals showing any independence, just like Stalinist Russia wiping out the kulaks with resultant starvation and hard times for everybody.

The socialists must control everything!

The first issue to work out is why is any government deciding on contracts between two independent parties in the first place. If gypsy has a genuine grievance (we don’t know, as Sylvia says) then the government is not interfering in private enterprise to protect the little bloke, so why the government meddling?

As Sylvia says it's hard to add much to this debate without knowing the particular clauses which gypsy thinks are unfair. My understanding of the contract is that it was designed to ensure businesss complied with new requirements under the Act for written agreements. The model contract was prepared as a fair industry benchmark of typical contractual terms.
Some contract drivers I know are happy with the legislation.
I think that describing the current State Labor Government as 'socialist' is a bit of a joke

I think Sylvia is correct, you need to be more specific about what you are complaining about.

That said, leigh would certainly be right, "owner drivers" are anathema to socialist theories of collective control. Owner drivers are less likely to support unions and more likely to seek individual contracts, therefore challenging the relevance of unions, the paymasters of socialist politicians.

One benefit of prescribed contracts (my assumption), you do not have to go and get one cobbled together by a lawyer, at a fee.