Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to see that the member opposite who has made the interjection and then walked out of the chamber has access to Google. It took him all of about five minutes to be able to access Google and work out that Stanley Melbourne Bruce was indeed a member of the United Australia Party, the progenitor of the Liberal Party of today. But the point remains the same—the absolute hostility of conservative members of this parliament from the 1930s to today to Australians working on ships that come in and out of our ports.

The object of the seafarer tax offset was to stimulate opportunities for Australian seafarers to be employed or engaged on overseas voyages and to acquire maritime skills. Now, even before the offset initiative is two years old, when it has hardly had the opportunity to stretch its legs, they are moving to scrap it because of a massive $8 million drag on the budget over the forward estimates! You have to ask yourself where the priorities are. It is going to have a devastating impact on the electorates that have ports and are reliant on maritime trade, particularly international maritime trade. I represent such an electorate. The port of Port Kembla directly employs more than 3,500 people and contributes around $418 million to the Illawarra economy every year. Make no mistake about it—this will have an impact. We need a vibrant shipping industry, and we need it in my electorate and in places like the Illawarra, whose economies are going through a transition. We are going to be relying on a viable maritime sector and a viable port sector to regenerate the Australian economy. But we want to ensure that as the port expands there are Australians working on the ships that come in and out of those ports.

The seafarer tax offset has already helped to reduce the operating costs of Australian vessels; we know that. It has increased the competitiveness of Australian shipping and has provided significant opportunities for the employment of Australians in international trades. The Australian Shipowners Association—and I had the pleasure of meeting with Teresa Lloyd, their executive director, earlier today—are pulling their hair out over this. They cannot see the sense of it. And they have been very critical over the years of a number of initiatives of members of this side of the House, but they are absolutely in lock step with us in opposing this proposition, because they can see the fact that this is going to decimate the capacity of Australian workers to compete and to work on those international voyages. The shipowners association has come out strongly against it. They are saying that it is reckless, that it is needless, and that without the offset it is significantly more expensive to employ Australians overseas. They know what is going to happen: jobs are going to be lost. It is as simple as that.

In the time I have left I want to make a few points about the importance of ensuring that we maintain a vibrant shipping industry in this country. Anybody who knows anything about the shipping workforce knows it is an ageing workforce. If we do not move now to ensure that there are replacement workers who are going to be regenerating the maritime industry workforce and if we do not move now to ensure that we maintain the skills, not only for domestic voyages but international voyages, then we will lose those skills forever. These are not things that you can turn on and off like a tap. So, in a country with over 99 per cent of its trade coming in and out of our ports—and in a parliament that gives bipartisan support to the importance of free trade agreements, international trade and ensuring that we are connected to the world—why on earth would any member stand in this place and vote for a proposition that is going to undermine that most important link in the chain: the capacity for Australians to be working on ships that ply our coasts and ply the international trade routes and to ensure that we have a skilled workforce, that we have an experienced workforce, that we have a vibrant Australian maritime workforce? This is one of many measures put in place as part of the maritime reform package. It is reckless. It has no drag weight on the budget whatsoever. All right-thinking members of the House should reject it, and I call upon the government MPs to do exactly that.

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