Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

It was interesting that the shadow minister chose to quote from page 80. He selectively chose one paragraph. Maybe he should read the paragraph before and the paragraph after, which make it clear why stakeholders were concerned about the cost of Australian shipping:

The current Temporary Licence system was seen as a further disincentive to the participation of foreign vessels, due to high compliance costs and operational uncertainty. Temporary Licences were seen as overly inflexible because foreign vessels are currently required to apply for a minimum of five voyages …

When you selectively take one paragraph out of the whole case you do not accurately reflect the arguments that have been put. In relation to the title of the bill, it is quite clear that when Labor put 'Revitalising Australian Shipping' into the title of the bill it did not have that effect. The reality is that you cannot revitalise an industry just by writing it into the name of a bill. The reality is that since this legislation was implemented the number of ships has dropped from 30 to 15. The number of people employed in the industry has dropped.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The number of registered vessels has dropped from 30 to 15. The reality is that the name has done nothing to increase the number of ships. It has actually reduced the number of ships. So we are talking about a working title delivering a working result, delivering an outcome that will result in there being a more competitive Australian economy, an economy that is aided by having capacity to move products around our coast at a rate that is competitive with things that are coming in from other parts of the world. If we want to have a strong Australian industry we need to give it the support that it needs to achieve its objectives. Just putting the word in the title of a bill does not do that. You have to have the will and the effective policies to achieve that objective, and that is what our amending legislation is about.

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