Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the amendment moved by the member for Grayndler and am strongly in opposition to this Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015. Let us be very clear what this legislation seeks to do. It seeks to put about 10,000 hard-working highly skilled Australians out of work and replace them with foreign labour on foreign flagged vessels around the Australian coastline. That is succinctly what this bill is aimed at doing. That will be the effect of this bill, to put thousands of Australians—many of whom live in my community—out of work and allow so-called 'flag of convenience' vessels to operate in Australian waters, to employ foreign labour on those vessels, to avoid Australian workplace relations and safety laws, to avoid paying those crews fair and decent wages in accordance with Australian workplace agreements and awards, and to potentially undermine the environmental protections that Australia has built up around some of our most precious marine resources, particularly the Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is an island continent and we are heavily reliant on shipping for our trade. In fact, shipping represents 99 per cent of the carriage of our trade. We have one of the longest coastlines in the world and the fifth largest shipping task of any nation. Ten per cent of the world's cargo trade is carried by ship to or from Australia. Ten per cent of the world's international cargo shipping is done to or from Australia. That gives an idea of the magnitude of this industry and the importance of this industry to Australian employment and economic development. This bill seeks to undermine the sanctity of that particular industry and the importance of it to Australia's economic development.

Shipping is a massive industry and is one of tremendous importance to many Australians and to the Australian way of life. My own grandfather was a wharfie who worked at the Hungry Mile around Sydney. His job was related to that particular trade—the importance of shipping. When he was injured at work and was unable to work on the wharves anymore, his family suffered as a result. If it were not for the support of the Waterside Workers' Federation at the time, his family would indeed have struggled to get by. The importance of shipping, of this particular trade, to many Australian employees and families cannot be underscored enough. That is why I am vehemently opposed to what this government is seeking to do, which is to completely wipe out protections that have been put in place to ensure that we promote Australian jobs in this industry and to ensure that we are promoting Australian wages and conditions, safety and environmental laws at the expense of foreign-flagged vessels. I think is the height of un-Australian culture to ensure that foreign-flagged ships can come into the Australian shipping industry and begin to offer and operate services at a discounted rate, principally because they have got rid of protections on wages and conditions. It is against everything that Australia stands for when it comes to promoting jobs and a great industry that has served our nation well.

Labor recognised this when, in 2012, we introduced new laws designed to revitalise what was then a flagging shipping industry. We took this task seriously. Over many, many years the Labor Party consulted with experts in the field—with the shippers, with the businesses, with the logistics companies, with the stevedoring companies and, importantly, with seafarers. We looked at international best practice, and between 2010 and 2012 Anthony Albanese, the member for Grayndler, led an extensive consultation period. There had been a parliamentary inquiry in 2008. On the back of that we introduced measures that had the support of industry, that had the support of the operators of Australian-flagged ships on our shores. We introduced new measures to provide taxation incentives for Australian-flagged ships, encouraging the employment of Australian seafarers and ushering in workplace packages that focused on maritime skills development—on building a credible, sophisticated, highly skilled workforce that supported a very important trade in the Australian economy, that grew that trade in the Australian economy.

Since the day the Abbott-Turnbull government was sworn in, it has harboured a destructive attitude to some of those Labor reforms for an important industry and has sought to foster uncertainty regarding the potential of an Australian-flagged fleet. Since its time in opposition this Liberal government has been about ensuring that it undermined those policies that were put in place by Labor, seeking to create uncertainty within the industry. The Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill is this government's attempt to continue to undermine that industry. It will potentially result in the loss of 10,000 direct jobs that are currently undertaken by Australians and will see them go overseas—taken up by foreign labour. At the end of the day, that is the crux of the issue here. That is what will occur if this bill goes through this parliament.

This bill replaces preference for an Australian flag on ships working on the Australian coast with preference for a foreign flag—or at least indifference to flagging, with so-called flags-of-convenience ships being placed on the same level as Australian-flagged ships. When a ship has an Australian flag it is subject to Australian safety, workplace, environmental, taxation and industrial relations laws. It is subject to the laws of Australia, and in that respect those who operate those ships must operate in accordance with Australian laws and must employ Australians in accordance with those laws. As I said earlier, approximately 10,000 people are directly and indirectly employed in this industry. And let's face it: Australian shipping and seafaring workers do it tough. It is not an easy job being at sea for the majority of your working weeks in a particular year. It is tough on the individual, it is tough on their families and it is tough on the communities in which they live.

Just last month I visited Port Botany, in my local electorate, where hundreds of local workers were protesting the sacking of almost 100 port employees. We saw what occurred there. Those individuals were dismissed and were told by text message that they were being made redundant. When I went down to the port I saw workers who had lost their jobs, but I also saw the coach of the local footy and soccer teams, the husband or wife of the nurse who works at the local hospital, the husband or wife of the local teacher who works and educates kids in our community. They had been given a kick in the guts by this particular company—a foreign-based parent company that did not really understand the way Australian workplace and industrial laws work and thought it would be able to get away with dismissing people at night via text message. That is an insight into what is in store for those 10,000 seafaring-type workers who are employed in this important industry if this bill goes through.

It has been dubbed 'WorkChoices on water', and I could not think of a more appropriate way to describe what is going on here, what this government is attempting to do in attacking seafaring workers. Of the savings the government claims on the back of this bill, 88 per cent are due to the sacking of Australian workers and replacing them with foreign crews being paid Third World rates. That is what this government is attempting to do: make savings to the Australian budget on the back of sacking Australian workers. In my view, that is despicable—and that is why we are opposed to this bill.

This is a disastrously short-sighted approach from this government that fails to take into account the devastating impact it would have on those who will lose their jobs, as well as on their families and the communities in which they work. The impact also includes lost spending in local economies, lost revenue to the government through a reduction in income tax payments from those who lose their jobs, and a further cost to the budget due to the resultant higher welfare spending—not to mention the emotional and psychological damage that is invariably associated with the sudden loss of one's job.

This legislation also has an environmental impact. Australia has some of the most pristine and ecologically important marine reserves in the world—most notably the Great Barrier Reef. No-one knows those waters better than the seafarers and captains who operate in those waters, particularly Australian seafarers and captains, many of whom have grown up on the waters around those important ecological areas. There have been cases of foreign flagged vessels that have run into difficulties in Australian marine reserves and damaged some of Australia's precious marine ecosystems. There was the recent incident of Shen Neng1, which in 2010 became stranded on the Great Barrier Reef and did significant damage. There were also incidents with the MV Pacific Adventurerin 2009 off the Sunshine Coast and with Chinese Steel Developer in 2015 off Mackay. This underscores the importance of ensuring that we have Australian flagged crews and Australian flagged vessels operating in Australian waters—because they appreciate and understand. They have the local knowledge, particularly of shipping channels, necessary to ensure proper navigation through these protected waters. They would understand the importance of ensuring that people are not working when fatigued or under poor work standards. They would ensure that ships operated with appropriate controls when navigating through these protected waters.

So there is not only the personal aspect; there is not only the economic aspect; there is also an environmental aspect to what this government is seeking to do. On those grounds, Labor has a very simple position: we are opposed to this bill. If you seek to move freight on the road in this country, the driver is paid Australian wages and the driver works to Australian safety standards and road conditions. The same goes for moving freight by rail. The situation should be no different if you are operating in Australian waters. If you are operating a company in Australian waters and moving cargo to and from Australia, you should operate under Australian rules—you should pay your workers Australian wages, you should provide them with Australian conditions and you should abide by Australian environmental and safety laws.

Australia is heavily reliant on the shipping trade to keep our nation going, and we need to rely on Australians to do this work. This bill attacks those workers and seeks to allow operators in Australian waters to bring in foreign flagged vessels and to bring in workers under foreign wages and conditions—to undercut Australian wages and conditions. On that basis, this bill should be opposed. I urge the House to support the amendment of the member for Grayndler.

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