Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too, like the previous speaker, seek to ask the government to rethink the Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 and withdraw it. I agree that this is shocking legislation that seeks to destroy more jobs in our maritime industry. It seeks to destroy jobs and not create jobs. The bill comes at a time when this parliament and the Australian community are being asked to trust the government on the benefits of why we need to have free trade. We agree with free trade agreements, and we have made that very clear. But, as we said today in question time, and as Senator Penny Wong, our shadow minister for trade has said, and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten has said publicly, we need safeguards in place to protect Australian jobs.

We are here again today debating another bill that seeks to remove safeguards that will protect jobs in our shipping industry, jobs that could benefit from increased free trade. As people on this side of the House have acknowledged, Australia is an island nation and depends upon shipping for 99 per cent of its trade. You would think we would be booming and there would be tens of thousands of people employed in the shipping industry in Australia. With all the talk about our growing exports, with the continual lift in the numbers that the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources stands up here and delivers every single day, you would think that there would be a proposal for increased jobs in the shipping industry, but there is not.

What this government is not telling the Australian people, what they are trying to slip through in this parliament, is sneaky legislation that seeks to take away jobs in the shipping industry. That is what this bill does. It introduces what they call flags-of-convenience ships, which will basically see cuts in wages and conditions. It will see foreign-crewed vessels coming into the Australian industry with workers who are paid much less than Australian workers. It is 'Work Choices on water' and it will cost the thousands of jobs we have in our shipping industry.

I would like to take a moment to read out some of the comments of the people who are at risk of losing their jobs, the very people that this government seeks to make redundant as a result of this legislation. These are the words of Alex Kirby, who spoke to a group of us in Brisbane. He works in the maritime industry. He is one of the workers who was sacked by Hutchinson Ports in Brisbane. He said he would like to take the opportunity to share his story. He is typical of a seafarer, of a worker on the docks and of an MUA member. I know when I say that word it scares the hell out of the government, because it is true that they do not like organised labour and they do not like unions. Who is Alex? He declares that he is an everyday working class man with a fantastic wife and a beautiful nine-year-old daughter at home. He says: 'These two ladies rely upon me to provide them with a home, food, clothing and all the essentials. I have been fortunate enough to do this successfully until now, because I was terminated in the middle of the night via email. Our family had no time to prepare financially. Our family had no time to mentally prepare for what happened to us.'

This is why governments matter. Governments are here to ensure fair, safe workplaces. Governments are here to ensure that we have workplace laws that ensure people's rights are protected so that workers who work in the maritime industry, or any industry, do not go through what Alex and so many of his co-workers went through on the Australian docks. Why is this relevant to this debate? It is relevant because the government is seeking to take away the reforms that were introduced by the former Labor government that protected and ensured Australian flagged ships and Australian wages and conditions.

When Labor took office in 2007 the Australian shipping industry was in a state of decline. Despite the fact that our exports were increasing and that we were increasing our imports, Australian shipping was in decline, meaning that Australian jobs—good quality, well-paid jobs—were in decline. Under the Howard government the number of Australian flagged vessels working the domestic trade routes plunged from 55, in 1996, to 21, in 2007. I cannot believe that it fell to 21, and, as we heard from the previous speaker, it is now down to 13. We are an island nation, a nation where we should be seeing an increased number of ships. We should be seeing an increased number of Australian-flagged ships and Australians working on those ships. If this government is serious about generating jobs during increased export/import trade arrangements, then back the Australian shipping industry and ensure that Australians get to benefit from those free trade agreements and that Australians in shipping get their jobs.

But what we have seen from this government and all of the backbenchers who have spoken about this, is that they are interested only in their mates in business. They are interested only in lowering costs for their mates in business. The way in which they are lowering costs for their mates in business, through trade, is in this bill. They are allowing flags-of-convenience ships, foreign-crewed ships, to come in and take the jobs of Australian flagged ships and Australian seafarers. What will that cost people? They are doing that by undercutting wages. Yes, Australian seafarers earn a high wage. They are high-skilled and they have been through training, even to having security permits and licences. It is expensive and quite often they either pay for it or their company pays for it. These are costs that Australian shipping companies and Australian seafarers bear themselves. If you are a foreign-flagged ship you do not need to have these particular costs. That is one of the ways in which they are undercutting.

We have also heard from some of the other speakers today about the appalling wages and conditions of some of the people who are working on these foreign-flagged ships. At the moment, and earlier this year, there was in fact a coroner's inquiry into what had happened where three Filipino workers had tragically lost their lives. That investigation is ongoing. So, not only do these foreign-flagged ships undercut the wages and conditions of Australian seafarers but they also are not safe. The safety standards and guarantees are not the same as Australian-flagged ships, which puts them at a competitive advantage.

The labour reforms, as I have said, introduced certainty and made sure that good wages and good conditions were at the forefront of our shipping industry. The aim was to support the Australian shipping industry within our own borders. It is something, as other speakers have said, that has occurred in other countries such as the United States, which this government tries to follow so often when it comes to health care and education but not when it comes to Australian shipping. As we have heard, the Jones Act in the United States was very similar to what Labor did in government. It ensured that, on the domestic seafaring route, United States seafarers had the work. In fact, the Jones Act went one step further and said that, if you wanted a ship sailing the domestic route in the United States, it also had to be built in the United States. Isn't that a positive proposal? Wouldn't it be great if the government got behind ship manufacturing in this country? Rather than deregulating the industry and having flag-of-convenience ships, wouldn't it be great if this government got behind similar legislation to the Jones Act whereby the ships were built here and flagged by Australians so that they had the benefits of these agreements?

The government likes to preach about the importance of trade. Let all Australians share in that trade opportunity, not just big business. Let Australian workers share in that trade by encouraging Australian-flagged vessels, rather than what we see in this bill, with the proposal to have wages and conditions undercut by foreign-flagged vessels. It is against our national interest for this bill to pass the House. The national interest of having an Australian industry is built on three tenets. It is very important to our security to have an Australian shipping industry. It is very important to our environmental interests. Whether it be in the north, around the Barrier Reef, or in the south, it is so important for environmental reasons that we ensure that we have an Australian shipping industry with Australian pilots navigating the Barrier Reef and Australian pilots sailing into our areas. This is why it is so critical that the government backs down on this reform and ensures that we have an Australian shipping industry and that Australians are involved in the Australian shipping industry.

Debate adjourned.

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