Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to contribute to this debate on Labor's amendment to the Turnbull government's shameful Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Amendment Bill 2017. If Mr Turnbull gets his way, this legislation will shut down an Australian industry, slash Australian jobs, threaten our maritime environment and decimate our maritime capacity. There couldn't be a surer marker of the very stark difference between Labor and Liberal when it comes to shipping than this bill. Labor believes that Australia needs a sustainable, competitive and growing domestic shipping industry for strategic, social, economic and environmental reasons, and the coalition doesn't. It's that simple.

In fact, the very purpose of the legislation before us today is to get rid of what is left of the Australian flagged shipping industry and sack Australian seafarers. In a rare act of honesty about the true policy intent, the government isn't even trying to hide it. It's written in black and white in the bill's regulation impact statement:

… the current framework makes it unattractive for foreign ships to enter the coastal trading sector … These amendments … will remove the barriers that currently face many foreign flagged vessels under the current system.

At least the government is saying up-front that this is about making life easier for foreign flagged vessels. Those opposite want to get rid of Australian ships employing Australian workers and surrender these critical coastal trading routes to foreign operators paying Third World wages. We have seen this before in other sectors. Car manufacturing, scientific endeavours and renewables are all strategically important industries that have been sabotaged by this backward-focused, Luddite government, intent on destroying jobs and shutting down Australian enterprise.

It's hard to imagine a policy more at odds with our nation's interest than this one. As the world's largest island nation, we will always be dependent on shipping trade. In fact, 99 per cent of our international trade is served by sea. That's a massive $1.2 billion worth of imports and exports every single day. Ten per cent of the entire planet's sea trade goes through Australian ports. But this is an industry in crisis. Australia now has only 12 coastal trading vessels, down from hundreds just a few decades ago. Shamefully, 12 vessels have been reflagged to a foreign state as a result of the uncertainty and instability created by the Liberals since they have come to power.

We must have a strong local maritime skills base; but without a strong maritime industry, this simply can't happen. Every time we lose an Australian vessel, we also lose Australian jobs and risk our highly trained seafarers having to leave the industry entirely. While this is a travesty for individual workers, their families and their communities, the shrinking of our national maritime capability also brings very real national safety and security implications for the entire nation. For centuries, the merchant fleet has stepped in during times of war and national crisis to support our Navy. But if we have no local ships or local seafarers, what happens then? Consider the dire reality that Australia has only three weeks worth of fuel on hand. We are entirely at the mercy of sea trade to maintain those supplies. In the case of a national or global emergency, how can we be sure that foreign flagged vessels won't have other priorities ahead of ensuring the ongoing viability of Australian fuel supplies?

We also need to consider the environmental implications of losing our highly skilled maritime workforce. When Australian coastal trading routes are surrendered to foreign crews, with enormously variable range of skills and commitment to environmental protection, there is a much greater risk of disaster occurring. It's no coincidence that every one of the major maritime incidents in Australian waters in recent decades has involved a foreign flagged ship with foreign crews. Whichever way you look at it, this bill is a shameful betrayal of our proud maritime legacy and our future strategic interests. That's not to mention the budgetary implications of privileging foreign flagged ships, which have zero obligation to pay their fair share of taxes in our country.

There are few places in this country where the impacts of this sort of legislation will be more keenly felt than in my electorate of Newcastle. The Port of Newcastle has a history stretching back to the early 19th century. It's a critical link in our national supply chain, which manages the movement of more than 4,600 ships every year. Regrettably, the bill before us today isn't the only damage that the Liberals are doing to our port and our community. In fact, there is currently an ACCC investigation into the scandalous deal done by the New South Wales Liberal government when it privatised the New South Wales ports of Botany and Kembla. The agreement imposed a cap on the number of containers that could leave the Port of Newcastle before onerous penalties would apply. It was a blatantly anticompetitive stitch up designed to hike the port's sale price for the New South Wales state Liberal government at the expense of any future prosperity for Newcastle and the Hunter region. They've got their foot on our neck and are completely choking our port's capacity to grow and increase productivity and enterprise. Local jobs and local maritime opportunities are under attack again. This time, however, it's from the federal Liberal government.

Labor won't be a party to this travesty. We will continue to support Australian industry and Australian workers. We refuse to sign the death warrant of our nationally vital maritime industry. Labor has been long concerned about the Liberals' treatment of Australian shipping, which has ranged from callous neglect to the blatant aggression that we've seen today. When Labor came to office back in 2007, we faced a shipping industry in dire straits, with the number of Australian flagged vessels falling from 55 in 1996 to 21 ships in 2007 under the Howard government. The former Labor government undertook a comprehensive four-year review and policy development process to deliver the Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012. Through this bill, we built a standalone legislative framework that recognised the special role of vessels trading around our country's coastline. For the first time, there was certainty and a stable regulatory environment to increase competitiveness and drive investment through a licensing system which created different conditions for Australian flagged and foreign flagged vessels.

The fundamental principle underlying this legislation was that Australian shipping needs and deserves a level playing field. Foreign vessels, while they were catered for, were only allowed under the condition that no Australian ships were available and that they were to be paid proper Australian wages. We also made sure oil companies pay for any and all damage their ships may cause, and we developed Australia's first national ports strategy. We replaced a mess of confusing, often conflicting, state and territory based laws and regulations with one national regulator administering and overseeing a set of modern, nationwide laws.

Labor were on the right path. We created a strong regime and incentives for companies to flag their ships in Australia and employ Australian workers. But it needed time to work. Regretfully, time was something we didn't have, and the Liberals came to power not long after the bill was passed. I seek leave to continue my comments at a later time.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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