Michael Hatton (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the two minutes or so until we go to the adjournment I will address a very small part of this simple bill, the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Amendment (Security Plans and Other Measures) Bill 2006. I will come to the broader question in terms of the opposition’s amendments to this bill later when I get a chance to speak again.

In the second paragraph of the second reading speech the Minister for Transport and Regional Services outlined more of what is in this bill than you could do in almost a month of Sundays. It says the particular instruments that are involved here are affected in this way:

The act implements a preventative security regime to enhance security at ports, terminals, offshore facilities and on board ships, giving effect to Australia’s international obligations under the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code under chapter XI-2 of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention 1974.

How does it do it? Essentially it changes the administrative arrangements for people who are in the maritime industry to allow them to make amendments to their previously put forward security plans and to not have to put a completely new plan into place, so that when an amendment is put it can be dealt as a variation and that variation can have the same onus as the original plan and can be allowed through. Secondly, a particular person is not designated to be in charge of implementing the act, so significant changes do not have to be made if the person changes his job.

Debate interrupted.

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