Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do understand, and I do appreciate, that there are workers on ships who are feeling concerned about their jobs. But the rationale does not stack up. When you take one job here, on an Australian flagged coastal vessel, and it costs four jobs in another unionised workplace—whether that be at Bell Bay or at Norske Skog in my electorate—this is the conundrum all around Australia.

Honourable members interjecting—

I do have some sympathy, but the reality is we have to deal with the facts. The facts are that we have an ageing shipping fleet in Australia, it is not being replenished, and this is vital not only to my state of Tasmania, it is vital to our nation. Yes, we can tinker around the edges—

Honourable members interjecting—

I do have some sympathy but the arguments that are being used on the other side simply do not stack up to scrutiny, when you are brutally honest about it. The claims around wages simply do not stack up. There is '$2 a day' and these sorts of claims—they simply do not stack up.

Eighty per cent of global tonnage is carried under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, to which Australia is a signatory. Sixty-four of the international labour organisations are members of that. The safety net of standards that applies to employment applies to over 1½ million seafarers. The dead-weight tonnage on Australian flagged ships has fallen by 64 per cent since the member for Grayndler introduced this legislation in 2012. That is the tragedy. I cannot stand here in good faith and not condemn what has been a disaster for our state, as the representative of a large part of the island state; and I advocate very strongly for change.

I support the contribution made by the member for Bass. He is right: the system is broken. The costs on Bass Strait went up enormously since 2012. We are doing substantial work, with a $203 million contribution over four years to assist the Freight Equalisation Scheme. We are assisting with free trade agreements and other measures, but to get goods to the market we need vessels that are cost competitive.

See this speech in context