TIM WILLIAMS: On the line now I have Senator Anthony Chisholm, he's the Assistant Federal Minister for Regional Development. Good afternoon. How are you?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: Good afternoon, Tim. Good to be with you and your listeners.

TIM WILLIAMS: Yes, and thank you for taking the time. You're in parliament at the moment, so it's a busy week for you, isn't it?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: It is, yeah. Last sitting day today, but still plenty to get through.

TIM WILLIAMS: So you're not going to do one of these, you know, three o'clock in the morning finishes or something, are you?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: No, we're hoping not, but we'll certainly be going through until the final whistle tonight and then we're going to make those House of Representatives guys stick around a bit longer to finish off some legislation. But, yeah, we're passing those environmental reforms which have been on the table for about five years now, so it's a significant date.

TIM WILLIAMS: Now, the reason that we're talking this afternoon, though, you've got some new and upgraded truckie rest areas being delivered right across the country pretty much, haven't you, to keep truckies safe?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: We have. So this has been a proposal that's been pushed along by Senator Glenn Sterle, who's a Western Australian Senator, but more importantly than that, he's spent a lot of his life as a truckie. And he's been very passionate about road safety, but also ensuring that truckies have safe places where they can pull over and rest. Given the size of our country, we know we rely on road transport to get goods and services around, keep the country ticking, and there's no better example of that than at Christmas time.

So we had $140 million that we've invested from a Federal Government point of view to work with state and councils to identify areas that need new rest areas or upgraded rest areas. This is about the safety of the truckies, but it's also about those other people who use the roads, whether it be families or people going about other lines of work in the agriculture industry, that they can be safe knowing that truckies can have a good place to rest before they continue on their journey.

So it's been an important government program and we've been working closely with the New South Wales Government who've identified a number of projects through this round that will be funded, included in that is the Narromine Heavy Vehicle Rest Area, which is on the Mitchell Highway, and also the Halfway Tree Rest Area on the Cobb Highway between Wilcannia and Ivanhoe, are two of the projects that have been funded as part of this in New South Wales. So a good outcome and ones that we know are going to help make our roads safer for truckies but also for people from the area who use those as well.

TIM WILLIAMS: And it is important that those truckies as well - not just, you know, that they take regular rest breaks, but for so many of them when they're doing those really long distances, that they have good amount of time to have a break before shifts as well.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: Absolutely vital and safety at work is important and we know, particularly in the transport industry, standards had been bad. And there's way too many fatalities whether it be from truckies or bus drivers or those people in vehicles at the same time. So the government needs to ensure that we're what we can. This is one part of that where we can provide safer rest areas and improve the overall outcome for those people who use our roads, which is a lot of Australians. And particularly this time of year, whether you're doing it for work or whether you're catching up with family or friends, we know our roads are going to be busy, so we encourage people to drive responsibly and be aware of others on the road.

TIM WILLIAMS: We've got two-thirds of the fatalities in New South Wales happening on regional and rural roads, so very, very important that we make sure that the truckies are well rested with those rest stops. Okay, so you're back into question time this afternoon?

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: We are, yeah, starting at 2:00, but we've got debate on the new environmental protection bill happening right now, so that will pass this evening before going back to the House of Reps. So a good way to end the year and one that's been in the works for five years now, so it's good to finally get that bit of legislation done which will lead to better environmental standards into the future.

TIM WILLIAMS: Thank you for taking the time out from that debate to speak with us on 2BS in Bathurst.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: Thanks, Tim. Good to be with you.