Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on the Migration Amendment (Maritime Crew) Bill 2007. As the opposition spokesman, the member for Watson, said, it is an uncontentious bill. It is a timely bill. It addresses what has been seen to be an area that needs further tightening. That is agreed to by both sides of the House. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be in the House, would it? The purpose of this bill is to create a new temporary visa called the maritime crew visa. This visa will apply to the foreign crew of non-military ships bringing imported goods into Australia. It will also apply to their spouses and to their children. This visa will replace the special purpose visa, which is the current arrangement, and other similar visas granted by operation of laws in this category. The purpose for creating this new visa is to ensure an appropriate level of security checking prior to the granting of a visa in order to enhance border security. As we know, this government has been outstanding in the way that it has enhanced the border security of this country. I will say a little bit more about that in a moment.

I want to talk about the replacement of special purpose visas. The special purpose visa has been in operation for this class of persons for many years. In fact, it covers a range of persons. Some of the people who this special purpose visa covers include: the royal family, Asia-Pacific forces members, foreign force dependants, foreign naval force members, airline positioning crews, airline crew members and, believe it or not, persons visiting Macquarie Island. It covers children born in Australia of a mother who at the time of the birth held a special purpose visa, if only the mother is in Australia at that time. In other words, it covers a lot of contingencies.

Quite interestingly, and rightly, it covers Indonesian traditional fishermen visiting the territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands. The opposition just asked, ‘What are they doing about Indonesian and foreign fishermen and their incursions into Australian territorial waters?’ Maybe they did not read this. This arrangement has been in place for many years. Had these Indonesian traditional fishermen—and we know that this is a bit far-fetched, because they do not generally do this—applied for a special purpose visa, they probably would have been considered for one. It is all very well to say, ‘Shock horror!’ but there is an arrangement in place.

In terms of border security, the Australian surveillance operation in the north-west—and in particular around Ashmore Island and the coastal areas—has been very successful. Okay, every now and again over that huge expanse of coastline and sea we have one or two getting through. But they do not do too well when they get through because they are found pretty readily by the Australians living on the mainland and then rounded up. As we know, in the previous budget we set aside $5 million for a crematorium to burn Indonesian boats because of how many we had been discovering. The ships need to be burnt because of the vermin that the ships have in their hulls and inside them. We do not want them to reach the mainland or stay here, and they will eventually infest our waters if the ships are sunk offshore. Our border security is second to none. The rest of the world would give their right arms to have the surveillance and security that we provide for Australia’s border protection. As the member for Watson also said, this bill is funded to the tune of over $100 million over five years to introduce this maritime crew visa. Like the special purpose visa, it will not cost the applicant.

We know that something like 585,000 crew members travelled to Australia in 2005. And we know that previously they applied when they got here. This is why the bill is in place: because it has been seen to be an inadequacy. Now these people can make applications online themselves before they arrive and their agents can apply on behalf of the crew members. The member opposite asked, ‘What sort of security is that when an agent can apply for you?’ All I can tell you is that we have the best electronic database on people coming to this country. I can assure you that anybody who had some sort of form or record who applied electronically would be found out very quickly. The fact that an agent applies, to my mind, is not a flaw at all because they have to do it before they get here. Coming by boat you do not arrive within a day, so they have plenty of time to check the records of the people who are arriving.

In addition to this, the transition period that is going to be in place—and this will commence on 1 July this year and run until 31 December 2007—is a good six-month period. We are making it very clear that, if you have not organised yourself a maritime crew visa by then, there are going to be extreme sanctions, because it will be mandatory from 1 January 2008. The sanctions will come under the Criminal Code, and they will take very severe actions towards those who transgress.

With respect to the special purpose visa, we have heard those opposite talk about ‘ships of shame’. There is still this criticism, as you can see in the amendment moved by the member for Watson. The second part of the amendment says ‘permitting foreign flag of convenience ships to carry dangerous goods on coastal shipping routes’. That is fine. I would imagine that any cargo that is onboard these boats is well known before it comes to Australia. We make sure that it is not only the crew that is surveilled but the sort of cargo they bring as well. I am sure the member for Batman, as nice a bloke as he is, will take issue again. Much of his contribution will be about foreign flagged ships trailing between Australian ports, and how—shock, horror!—this takes jobs away from Australians and terrible things will happen as a result of people on foreign flagged vessels.

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