Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I want to pick up on something that the shadow minister finished up on—that is, the need for a bipartisan position on coastal shipping policy. What happened with this policy contrasts strongly with Labor's legislation that we put through during the last Labor government, which was a product of probably the most extensive industry consultation I've seen in a couple of decades. It took almost four years to go from initial industry consultation to developing a legislative package that went through parliament. Why did we take that much time? We took that much time because we consulted with industry. But it wasn't just hand-picked industry. We didn't just go to the foreign shippers. We talked to Maritime Industry Australia, which is the peak body for Australian shippers. Imagine that: actually talking to Australian shippers when you're legislating about the Australian shipping industry! We talked to the unions; we talked to the customers to make sure that we had a package that could succeed in revitalising the Australian shipping industry.

The great tragedy is that within a year of that package being legislated there was a change of government. The new government couldn't get that particular legislation repealed, so what did they do? They just undermined it by the fraudulent issuing of temporary licences. I don't use those words lightly. It was a fraudulent issuing of temporary licences. They issued temporary licences for trade that had existed not for months or weeks but for decades.

As I said, the MV Portland was shipping alumina from the Kwinana Strip in WA to Portland for 27 years. Then, with the simple stroke of a pen, the new government, the Liberal-National coalition, replaced that general licence with a temporary licence, which led to the seafarers on the MV Portland being frogmarched off their ship in the middle of the night. Then they repeated it in Newcastle with the CSL Melbourne, which had been shipping alumina from Gladstone to Newcastle for the Tomago aluminium smelter for close to a decade. This is a great tragedy.

There is a human cost to this. I had a mobile office a year ago where I met with an unemployed engineer who lived in my electorate and who'd got every ticket under the sun. He'd put himself through a master's degree to make sure he was one of the best-qualified ship engineers in the country, but he couldn't get a job. Even though the shipping industry was booming, he could not get a job, because he was an Australian worker who wanted to be paid Australian wages. This time last year I met with another seafarer, who lives at Caves Beach in my electorate and who had been out of work for a couple of years—again, because this government had been undermining Labor's shipping reforms through the issuing of fraudulent temporary licences. It must end.

Compared with almost every other G20 country we stand alone on this. You only have to look at the United States, with its mighty Jones Act, where not only do you have to have US wages and conditions; you have to have US seafarers on US-built ships. We're not suggesting we go that far, but, as the shadow minister discussed, I don't think it's unreasonable that, for coastal trading, you have Australian workers paid Australian wages and conditions. These trips are the equivalent of a truck carrying alumina going from Gladstone to Newcastle. You wouldn't suggest having a Filipino driver on $2 per day driving a Filipino truck doing that job. These are the exact same trading routes; they just happen to be a few miles offshore on the water.

This government has form. This government, through their last legislative effort, tried to put 90 per cent of Australia's seafarers out of work. I join the call from the shadow minister for the government to inject a bit of bipartisanship into this issue and withdraw the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Amendment Bill, sit down with the opposition, talk to Maritime Industry Australia, the peak body for Australian shippers, talk—heaven forbid—to the unions, talk to their customers and actually find a constructive way forward.

We can honour the legacy of the former member for Wide Bay without continuing this idiotic and short-sighted attack on Australian seafarers. It's my constituents who will pay the price. I represent a proud maritime electorate, with plenty of seafarers. Unfortunately a lot of them are out of work. I urge this government to go back to the drawing board and work constructively on it. The Deputy Prime Minister is a good bloke. Hopefully he can see through the politics of this and come forward with a bipartisan solution that will actually boost the industry, rather than undermining it.

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