TRANSCRIPT: HEALTHY HEADS IN TRUCKS & SHEDS PRESS CONFERENCE, 7 May 2021

9:03AM

E&OE

Subjects: Launching the Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds Foundation’s National Mental Health and Wellbeing Roadmap;

PAUL GRAHAM

Today, we're very excited to be here in Wagga Wagga to launch our three year roadmap for the Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds Foundation and this roadmap is really designed for everybody in the industry, from the small truck driver, to people working in warehouses, to the large corporates. As an industry unfortunately, we have one of the worst statistics when it comes to mental health and wellbeing and this roadmap is designed to really help people go on their first journey and to create a better mental health environment for themselves and the whole industry. It will guide them to taking those initial steps to get on that journey and what we hope is that the whole industry embraces this and indeed, the communities in which we serve, because we saw throughout the pandemic particularly, the transport and logistics industry was the major enabler for making sure people got their product. But this also put pressure on that industry and that obviously plays out when it comes to mental health and wellbeing. So, it's a very exciting time. We want the whole industry to back it. The roadmap is free, you can access that on the Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds website. And we hope it's the first step in helping the whole industry move towards positive change so that we can help support those in our industry to have mental health and wellbeing coaching and at the same time, move us from being one of the worst industries to being one of the best.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Look, I really commend this initiative. It's okay to say that you are not okay. And indeed, truck drivers do such a power of good for the nation. I know when the coronavirus first hit and we all thought we needed more toilet paper than what we, in fact, did need and there was that raid on supermarket shelves. There was that raid on supermarket shelves for all sorts of items and indeed, some country supermarkets were completely cleaned out. Our truck drivers came to the fore, we put in the National Freight Code, not in weeks or days but indeed, it only took us hours because of the good relationship that state, that territory and that the Commonwealth Government has with our trucking industry. And to back this in with $600,000 is going to mean the world of difference. Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds will make all the difference. And if it just saves one life – just one life – then that funding is well worth the investment. If we just get one truck driver to know that he or she has that bit of a problem and can reach out, can take advantage of this toolkit and take advantage of this program, then that is going to mean the world of difference because our truckies are the lifeblood of the nation. They deliver everything in Australia except for babies. That's what they do and we want to back them in. We want to make sure that their headspace is right. We want to make sure that they've got that support, because they've provided that support during coronavirus for the nation. They've certainly provided for our regional areas and they are the heroes of the nation through this coronavirus along with our frontline medical responders, of course. Our truck drivers have done a magnificent job and this is a very good investment to help them get the support that they need.

ENDS 9:07AM

Shane Manning