The Hon. MICHAEL GALLACHER: I direct my question to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Will the Minister indicate to the House the full extent of his relationship with Transport Workers Union official Bruce Penton and Concerned Families of Australian Truckies official Judith Penton?

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: The honourable member has asked a very interesting question. He asks me a lot of questions these days that are not connected directly with public affairs. Now he has asked me about my personal relationships.

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: Point of order: I did not ask that. I asked for the full extent of his relationship. The Minister should not debate the question.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Minister may continue.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: Mr President, I gave the honourable member the luxury of not asking you to rule the question out of order, so I will answer it. WorkCover New South Wales and the Motor Accidents Authority have long-established grants programs to further the cause of workplace and road safety respectively. No application for funding is seen, assessed or determined by me or by my office. All programs are subject to rigorous audits. The Motor Accidents Authority provided grants to the Transport Workers Union during an overhaul of road safety laws governing long-haul trucking. Seminars were run in metropolitan and regional New South Wales seeking input from truck drivers about the pressures placed on them by consignors and the unrealistic deadlines they were required to meet. Honourable members will remember this being raised frequently by me in this Chamber. As a direct result, the Quinlan report recommended chain of responsibility legislation, which the Government drafted and enacted. The union then prepared, published and launched a road safety and driver awareness package to alert drivers to their new rights and responsibilities—

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: Point of order: The question was very specific. It was about the full extent of the Minister's relationship with those two officials. We have not got anywhere near that.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I ask the Minister to continue to be generally relevant.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: The union then prepared, published and launched a road safety and driver awareness package to alert drivers to their new rights and responsibilities as a result of changes to the occupational health and safety laws passed by this House. There are 670,000 trucks on New South Wales roads, representing over 13 per cent of all vehicles. Large trucks have a claims cost around six times that of an ordinary sedan, indicating the personal injury costs they generate. The Motor Accidents Authority has provided many organisations with funding under its road safety grants schemes, and they have been subject to regular internal audit reviews. I have never been involved, nor has my office been involved, in determining or recommending any grant recipients. WorkCover, too, has an occupational health and safety grants program that funds projects run by union and employer organisations. WorkCover advises that in the past three years, 42 unions and 48 employer groups have received funding for specific projects.

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: Point of order: With less than a minute remaining for the Minister to complete his response we have not heard from the Minister about the extent of his relationship with the two people mentioned in the question.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will take his seat. He is making a debating point. The Minister may continue.

[Interruption]

The PRESIDENT: Order! I call the Leader of the Opposition to order.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: I thank the member for his mock outrage. Among the recipients of these grants is the Australian Industry Group, Australian Business Limited—is that the part that is out of order?

The Hon. Michael Gallacher: It's not.

The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: Other recipients of these grants are the Australian Retailers Association, the Motor Traders Association of New South Wales, the Master Plumbers Association of New South Wales and even the journalists' union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, for example, just completed a $60,000 project that examined the dangerous outcomes when journalists get fatigued and evidence-based options for managing fatigue improvement. [Time expired.]