Swansea MP Yasmin Catley has backed union calls for heavy vehicle inspection stations to double as COVID-19 testing facilities.
Ms Catley, the shadow minister for the Hunter, wants the NSW government to adopt a proposal from the Transport Workers' Union of NSW for heavy vehicle drivers to access testing at the state-owned roadside sites.
The Mount White and Twelve Mile Creek inspections stations were ideal, Ms Catley said, given their distance between Sydney and Newcastle, and Newcastle and the Mid North Coast, respectively.
There is a testing facility transport workers can access at a Taree service station off the Pacific Highway, but Ms Catley said the site had previously run out of testing kits.
Conducting testing at the safety stations would assist heavy vehicle operators to meet their testing requirements, she said.
Under the current public health orders, many transport workers, including heavy vehicle operators, are required to submit regular COVID-19 tests every three to seven days.
Ms Catley said this had proven to be difficult for transport workers and their employers in the Hunter who service the region with some drivers often spending hours waiting in line to be tested during their rest breaks.
"Using the Twelve Mile Creek site to perform COVID-19 tests will allow truck drivers to obtain their tests whilst their vehicles are weighed," she said.
"This will eliminate the difficulties they encounter, without cutting into their rest hours.
"This strategy is already being used at certain Heavy Vehicle Safety Stations in Victoria.
"Truck drivers are critical to keeping Hunter supermarket shelves stocked."
A Transport for NSW spokesman said the inspection stations had been assessed and were "unsuitable for use as COVID testing sites". "These stations are not designed to hold large numbers of heavy vehicles at one time," he said. Transport workers could access testing on "key freight routes across the state at Wetherill Park, Forbes, Narrabarba, Tarcutta, Narrandera, and Taree", he said.
He added about the inspections stations: "The site designs, including access and egress, only provide for a small number of vehicles to be parked up while inspected and they are not designed for accommodating the type of motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic and COVID-safe practices required of testing sites."
