Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I follow the member for Cowan in this debate to support the Australian Border Force Bill 2015. It is an important bill. It is an important bill for West Australians. It is important not just because our state, as we know Deputy Speaker Randall, is the state with the longest coastline in the entire Federation—bounded by the Southern Ocean to the south, the Great Australian Bight, past the Indian Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and Bonaparte Gulf in the northern part of the state. So the security of our borders and of our seaways is very important to West Australians. As I will say later in my comments, the technology that we will deploy to give life to the Australian Border Force is technology that has a unique West Australian capability and a unique West Australian edge.

I am particularly pleased to be speaking on this bill because it is a great demonstration of the many things that unite both sides of this House. The idea of this kind of initiative in immigration and border protection is something that grew from a lot of work that was done by the Gillard government and championed very strongly and in a very articulate manner by the then minister Jason Clare. Indeed, so recognisable is this model from the model that was discussed by the former government that it is clearly possible to see a terrific heritage for this bill and a lot of thought that has gone into the construction of the Australian Border Force—how it will work and how it will deploy its effort to protect our national borders in the great interest of our nation and in the interests of safety. Later, I will focus specifically on maritime safety.

The bill provides a legislative framework for the ABF, which is a single frontline operational border control enforcement entity that will be formed within the Department of Immigration and Border Protection from July this year. That is a good thing. It will bring the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Border Force more clearly within the national security sector. That is an outstanding thing. The creation of ABF, and the associated enhanced security and integrity measures, will allow greater rigor to be applied to the consideration, for instance, of visa applications. The ABF will have no greater powers than currently exist for the department and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, but it will deploy those powers in a better way.

There are many things that make me particularly pleased when I look at this bill, mostly because, as we know, the proper management and control of our borders is critical to the economic interests of our nation. Maintaining our borders as a secure platform for trade, travel and migration is a core responsibility of the Australian government. It is a responsibility that we all, in this place, have taken seriously since the Federation was created. Indeed, it was one of the reasons for the creation of the Federation. There is little point in having planned migration programs or laws around the movement of goods and people if we cannot protect the integrity of our borders. The initiatives in this bill will allow us to do that.

Some of the unique West Australian technologies that will be deployed to help make this border force work are, of course, the Cape Class patrol boats, which are built in Western Australia. They are built I am sure, Deputy Speaker Randall, by many workers from your electorate and from mine—highly skilled workers plying their skill not just in aluminium welding and in the fabrication of sophisticated maritime assets, but also in the design of those assets. They do it out of an outstanding company called Austal, which does its business out of Henderson, just north of my electorate in the southern coastal fringe of Perth. Austal is, globally, a unique company. It is unique not simply because of the intellectual property and design skill that it brings to the unique tasks that it undertakes, but it is unique because it does so on a commercial model. We do not see Austal out campaigning for protection. We see Austal out campaigning for jobs and work on a global scale. We see Austal now, for instance, winning one of the great contracts for the supply of vessels to the US Navy—a contract in the order of some $10 billion that will bring life to vessels built in Alabama from skilled design that grows out of Perth and skilled innovation that has been put together out of the Austal shipbuilding facility in Western Australia. When Austal was awarded the contract for the design, construction and through-life support of the Cape Class patrol boats for Australian Customs and Border Protection, as it was known in 2011, the eight nearly 60-meter aluminium monohulls were due to be delivered by August this year. Each and every one of them has been delivered on time and on budget. Each and every one of them has performed to its original specification, and each and every one of them is to be deployed, as was intended, in the protection of our borders. The support contract is to extend for a minimum period of eight years and encompass the full range of intermediate and depot level maintenance activities.

The Cape class patrol boat is both innovative and a terrific piece of technology. It brings greater range, endurance and flexibility in responding to a whole range of maritime security threats. It brings greater flexibility than the old fleet and it brings greater capacity than the old fleet. The vessels have enhanced capability to operate in higher sea states and to survive in more severe conditions. As we know, the Indian Ocean can bring with it at certain times of the year severe sea conditions that would test most vessels and most crews.

The Cape class patrol boats are able to undertake 28-day patrols—remain at sea for 28 days—and are able to sail 4,000 nautical miles before needing to refuel. They have the capacity to combat the full range of maritime security threats. They have a larger crew to more effectively and safely manage boarding operations. They can identify, track and intercept an extended range of threats in the maritime domain and gather intelligence and store evidence for matters that may proceed to the courts in our own country. They are also able while at sea in difficult sea conditions to launch two tender response vessels simultaneously. The capacity of these vessels is prodigious.

As all West Australians would agree, the work that Austel do at Austel ships makes us proud. I would encourage anyone who has not yet had the pleasure, to go to Austel and see not just the quality of what they build and design and the quality of their workmanship but also the work that they do to train their staff and their team. It is another great thing about the Kwinana industrial strip and, in particular, one of the great defining elements of this company, Austel.

These ships will also be used to counter people, drug and weapons smuggling. They will be used to apprehend foreign fishing vessels. They will be used to gather information and intelligence, monitor environmental pollution and assist management of offshore nature reserves and marine parks. These assets are about so many things and, working with the newly constructed Border Force, they bring to the Australian government the capacity to ensure that our borders are not only kept safe for people movements and trade and commerce but also kept safe for the people of Australia.

I began my comments by making an observation about the sheer size and length of the Western Australian coastal corridor and by making the point that, in so many ways, our Federation was created due to the need of the original colonies to create that safety for the original colonisers of our country. The development of the Australian Border Force and the capacity we have will allow our nation to carry out its responsibilities to itself and, in the complex world of maritime protection, in a way that will make us all proud. With Australian technology and careers and jobs developing through the Australian Border Force itself valuable work can be done in the protection of human life and the protection of our Australian way of life. I commend this bill to the parliament.

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