Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015. The member for Grayndler has very cogently pointed out the difficulties with this bill and the unfairness of this bill in terms of labour market provisions, and has also touched upon the issues of national security that have arisen time and time again when we look at the demise of our nation's own ability to sustain a shipping fleet. On that point, we note that American analysis of the Jones Act, which the member for Grayndler referred to comprehensively, very significantly found the importance of having a domestic fleet that could be diverted in times of national crisis to assist with tasks and referenced the role of the shipping industry in fuelling the efforts in the various Gulf wars.

I want to talk today about another issue that has not been touched on and it is one that I have had personal experience of: the ability for us here in Australia to sustain a skilled workforce within our ports. For almost eight years, I had responsibility for running WA's eight ports. Those ports, particularly if you look at the Pilbara ports, were some of the largest ports in the world in terms of tonnage shipped through them. What become evident from my experience, and indeed it was in all the reports that were made to me at that time—and I see from my research that it continues to be the case—is that there are critical skills in the operation of ports that require people with profound and extensive blue-water experience. The key tasks include those of harbour masters, port marine pilots, tug operators and marine engineers. All of those are absolutely critical skillsets for the conduct of sophisticated port operations.

The previous speaker was getting worked up because some of the reports had been prepared by certain entities. He seemed to particularly have some difficulty with the Australia Institute. I am looking at a report prepared by Victor Gekara from RMIT University for the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council. It is a report that has been backed up by a variety of government agencies and, indeed, port authorities around the country. It points out just how critical it is for us to have those skills and how increasingly difficult it is to find those skills within Australia. It goes directly to the question of the absence and decline of domiciled shipowners. The report says:

The absence of domiciled ship-owners engaging in cadet training has ... led to the depletion of the existing pool of mariners due to natural wastage as well as sectoral migration.

Basically, without any workforce replenishment at the bottom, we are simply not getting the people who come through as recruits, become junior officers and work their way up. If we continue to have this erosion of a domiciled Australian shipping industry, we are going to continue to lose the very critical skillsets that we need to have port operation. The previous speaker went on at length about wanting to protect the timber industry and the dairy industry and wanting to ensure that they have the capacity to export their product. I absolutely agree, but a critical part of that supply chain and trade facilitation is the efficient operation of ports. Ports simply cannot operate without deep skillsets in all of those areas. I have seen ports with a variety of levels of sophistication in their operations and I understand how critical it is to have deep skill sets and to have people with deep and profound logistical abilities. That can turn a port around.

If I could talk about the Port Hedland facility, which is now part of the combined Pilbara Ports, there was a time when BHP would question whether or not we could get much more than 190,000 tonnes out of that port. Last year that port got 264,000 tonnes of iron ore out on a single day. It is just extraordinary that we would get out a shipment of that size. Port Hedland is a heavily tidal port and these ships are very large, so it is a challenge as to how many ships you can bring out on a single tide. Earlier this year the Port Hedland facility of Pilbara Ports was able to ship out 1.5 million tonnes on eight Cape-class bulk carriers, within a single tidal window of 4.75 hours. You do not do that without profound logistical capacity and profound skill levels in your pilotage and in the port traffic operations. These are all skill sets that are acquired after very detailed and lengthy experience as blue-water mariners.

I ask members to look at where this whole issue of an Australian shipping industry fits within our ability to run ports that are efficient, that are able to cut costs and that are able to use their infrastructure in the most efficient way possible. So it is not just a question of looking at the industry itself. We need to look at the superstructure that is very much dependent on there being skill formation going on within the country.

I am very concerned that, as the member for Grayndler said, in a nation where we export 85 per cent of what we produce, Australian companies are responsible for exporting only around two per cent of the product that is produced on our shores. That is insufficient to either generate the jobs that we need to keep Australia going and, certainly, it is insufficient to generate the jobs we need to have efficient port operations. Our current account deficit obviously would be so much better if we were able to attract a much larger portion of shipping to Australia.

I think this legislation, in addition to all the unfairness in it that has been set out by previous speakers, is also a deeply irresponsible piece of legislation. It certainly shows that Australia is one of the few developed nations that has a large export industry yet does not work very hard to ensure, through legislative and fiscal means, that it sustains an efficient locally domiciled shipping industry and that it recognises the value of creating those jobs in themselves to allow Australians to have access to that work. It is equally important that as an exporting nation we recognise the need to have deep maritime skills so that we are able to operate efficient port operations. If we are to continue to provide meaningful, good jobs for Australians we need to make sure that we have an Australian based shipping industry.

So, I will be supporting my colleagues on this side of the House in refusing to support this bill. I am very mindful of the number of maritime workers I have met in recent times—a number of highly skilled seafarers in Western Australia—who are out of work. They have had exemplary work records and have been employed in the industry for the last 20 years. Now, particularly with the legislative diminution brought in with regard to the pipe-laying vessels offshore, jobs have been lost in the Australian resource sector as pipe laying and the servicing of rigs has been allowed to go offshore. Through the administrative dumbing down and non-enforcement of the rules in relation to our offshore resources facilities, many hundreds of Western Australian seafarers have lost their jobs. This legislation we are considering here today will increase that trend.

Therefore, I will not be supporting this legislation and I really urge the government to rethink this. I certainly hope that our friends on the cross benches in the Senate can see the folly of our losing yet another key skill set, consequently undermining our capacity to run the ports around our country, those ports that are so absolutely critical for trade facilitation.

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