Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2019, and I flag that we will be moving a second reading amendment, and there are also a series of substantive amendments that I wish to move in the consideration in detail.

Our ports and our airports provide the lifeblood of our country. Australia could not have got through or be getting through this global crisis without them. Throughout this crisis port workers have been hard at it: keeping our trade moving; importing the goods that we all rely on, including medical devices; exporting to the world; and ensuring that our shelves remain stocked with imported medicines and other essentials. And our airports have been at the front line in getting Australians home from overseas, getting key medical staff to where they are needed and reuniting Australians who've been separated from loved ones. Of course, with ports and airports playing such an important role in our nation, it is absolutely essential that they are secure. Like everyone in this House, Labor is committed to ensuring that our ports and airports are secure from criminal organisations and those who seek to do our nation harm. Our record in government attests to that.

The Aviation Security Identification Card, or the ASIC, and the Maritime Security Identification Card, or the MSIC, are an important part of securing the aviation, maritime and offshore oil and gas sectors from acts of terrorism and unlawful interference. The vast majority of Australian port workers do a great job. But, just as in every workforce, there will always be a small minority who will put their own interests ahead of the greater good and ahead of the law. Those who use our aviation and maritime transport systems as means to distribute drugs and other contraband into, out of and within Australian commit crimes. We know it happens, and Labor will of course support sensible measures to minimise this trade, to detect the perpetrators and to bring them to justice.

But unfortunately this bill is not fit for purpose, and in some parts it's frankly not even sensible or workable. A quarter of a million Australian workers currently hold an ASIC or an MSIC. These Australians deserve a system that treats them with respect and allows them to do their jobs while also protecting our national security. And to protect our national security it must apply to everyone working in our ports, including foreign workers. However, we already know that the ASIC and MSIC system is plagued with bureaucratic bungling and, frankly, delays as people try to get or renew their passes. Too often workers can't attend work because their cards have not been completed on time by the Department of Home Affairs contractors. This is not because of any poor paperwork or missed deadlines by these hardworking Australians.

Take the case of Brendan, a seafarer, whose only conviction is that he got into a fight in a pub 31 years ago, yet every time he needs to renew his MSIC he faces up to a 90-day wait, never sure whether his card will arrive on time for his next shift. This is his livelihood.

The government now seeks to expand this failing system without first fixing the problems that exist within it at the moment. When we take a look at the legislation itself, we see that this bill, which is about serious crime, lacks an important detail. Incredibly, this bill contains no definition of 'serious crime'. How can this bill be about serious crime when it doesn't even define, for the purposes of this bill, what serious crime actually is? There are at least 12 different definitions of 'serious crime' in different Commonwealth acts and regulations. This bill provides no detail about which definition will apply in this case. The bill is about people's livelihoods—their careers, their ability to go to work—so it absolutely deserves clarity.

Next we find that the bill imposes stricter conditions on Australian workers in Australian ports than it does on foreign crews working on our shores. With more and more foreign ships with foreign crews plying our coastline under licences issued by this government, how is the government screening these foreign crew members? Under this government's watch, we are now in a situation where less than half of one per cent of our seaborne trade is carried by Australian ships. That percentage is rapidly heading towards zero. Under this government's watch, the number of Australian flagged vessels has fallen to barely being in the double digits. For six years the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has stood by, when they should have been supporting and building our shipping industry. The government's own bureaucrats have pointed out the risks in relation to foreign crew working in Australia. But, rather than addressing these concerns in this bill, the government has chosen to target only Australian workers with ill-defined laws.

The then Department of Immigration and Border Protection could not have been clearer in 2017 when it said that foreign vessels and their crews, which use flag-of-convenience registration to operate in Australia, are likely targets for organised crime syndicates and terrorists. The department said that the reduced transparency and secrecy surrounding the complex financial and ownership arrangements of these vessels make them and their crews attractive for use in illegal activity, including by organised crime or terrorist groups. The department went on to say that these ships may be used in a range of illegal activities, including illegal exploitation of natural resources, illegal activity in protected areas, people smuggling and facilitating prohibited imports or exports. You'd think that this would be something that the government would follow up, but, no, they've done nothing to ensure that these workers are subject to any robust background checking.

So we have, in effect, one set of tough rules for Australians, which are about to get tougher through this legislation, and next to no background checks for foreign workers. How is that fair? How does that protect our borders and protect our national security? Labor does support measures to stop serious crime, but serious crime deserves serious responses, and this legislation needs improvement before Labor can support it.

To improve this bill, I will be moving amendments to define 'serious crime' to ensure the scope of crimes covered under this legislation is targeted and is not so unfairly broad that a range of workers are unnecessarily disqualified from the maritime and aviation industry, when they do not present a specific security threat. I will also move amendments to ensure that there is a legislative avenue of appeal for those who've been determined to have an adverse security status. People deserve to know why they cannot get to do their job. I will also move amendments to mandate processing times for ASIC and MSIC cards. This is a system that, as I said, has been plagued by delay, and it absolutely needs to be improved. I will also move amendments to take steps to ensure that foreign crew members are subject to similar background checking to Australian workers. The opposition will also ensure that workers cannot be denied access to an ASIC or MSIC on the basis of intelligence only. The legislation must not be a backdoor way for the government to remove aviation or waterside workers' rights to work, and they must make commitments to that effect. They've told us that that's the case, but we want to make absolutely sure that that is very clear and very explicit within this legislation.

This is a government that has been much more interested in getting a headline than actually delivering and helping people. And, of course, this bill comes from a government which has repeatedly failed when it comes to our borders. On 15 March, the Prime Minister said, 'The Australian government will also ban cruise ships from foreign ports arriving in Australian ports.' Four days later, at 6.30 am on 19 March, the Ruby Princess was allowed to disembark in Sydney, with 2,700 passengers, including sick passengers, allowed to spread COVID-19 across Australia and across the globe. When it comes to the borders, the buck stops with the Commonwealth, and, on that matter, they resoundingly failed.

But, while the government let passengers with COVID spread across the country, they still have no plan to assist stranded Australians across the world. The Prime Minister made the announcement about further travel restrictions and caps on international arrivals but didn't have a plan for what would happen next, and he doesn't care, frankly, for those many Australians who are left overseas. Members of parliament are being inundated with pleas for help from Australians stranded overseas, and the Prime Minister needs to come up with a realistic, sustainable plan to help them now.

We are hearing stories, of course, of Australians separated from their families, forced to live in caravans, drawing down on their superannuation or missing the funerals of loved ones because the government doesn't have a plan. This is a government that has failed on its borders. There are 27,000 Australians who want to return home but can't because the Morrison government won't assist. We know that the Commonwealth does have capacity here and there is plenty they could be doing. Australians are sick of a government which sees protecting our borders as nothing more than cheap headlines but doesn't care for Australians overseas and doesn't care for our maritime and aviation workers.

That being said, I do want to move the second reading amendment that I will circulate in my name. I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) serious crime deserves a serious response;

(b) the Coalition Government has failed to bring appropriate legislation to the Parliament to solve issues involving serious crime at our airports and seaports;

(c) instead, the Coalition Government has rehashed the same flawed legislation that was introduced in—and ultimately rejected by—both the 44th and 45th Parliaments;

(d) the Opposition will move substantive amendments to fix the myriad issues with the bill; and

(e) the Opposition's amendments will address concerns relating to the bill's failure to:

  (i) define 'serious crime';

  (ii) provide an avenue for appeal for those with adverse security status judgments; and

  (iii) legislate timeframes around the approval and renewal of Aviation Security Identification Cards and Maritime Security Identification Cards;

(2) is of the opinion that Australians can no longer trust the Coalition Government on border security; and

(3) calls on the Coalition Government to support the Opposition's amendments to the bill".

See this speech in context