Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next Tuesday is the day of the race that stops the nation. But hundreds of wharfies are threatening action to stop the ports, and we just don't need that; we cannot afford it. An article in the Australian today indicates that hundreds of wharfies at Patrick Terminals have threatened a new round of rolling 12-hour strikes in Melbourne and all-day strikes in Sydney next Tuesday. That, if it occurs, is going to cause considerable hold-ups in the lead-up to Christmas, with further action planned. Patrick Terminals chief executive, Michael Jovicic, said the 'aggressive' round of 'crippling' strikes announced by the Maritime Union of Australia would 'result in significant delays at the Port of Melbourne, which is recovering from the effects of COVID'. The MUA had agreed to suspend industrial action in the wake of an outbreak that forced 44 per cent of Patrick's Melbourne employees to serve some form of isolation in the past four weeks. But, according to the Australian, the union has notified its intention to embark on these rolling strikes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Melbourne for the first two weeks of November, as well as other work bands.

A 24-hour strike is planned for the Brisbane terminal on 31 October, and on Monday the union notified its intention to strike for 24 hours at the Port of Botany on Melbourne Cup day. The Port of Botany, as I mentioned in the parliament last week, is already undergoing significant delays, and this is affecting particularly Roger Fletcher, who is one of Australia's largest sheepmeat exporters, if not the largest. He claims that it could see an end to chilled sheepmeat as opposed to frozen sheepmeat being exported, because of the delays. What he doesn't want to see is those 20-foot-equivalent containers stacked up on the shoreline, stacked up at the ports, because that costs him money. But it also, ultimately, costs farmers money, and certainly they're his major concern. He appreciates—as all of us do, Madam Deputy Speaker—that farmers have had a very tough time in recent years: drought, bushfires in some areas, flooding in some areas and, of course, COVID. It has been a tough time for farmers, and finally they're getting back on their feet. The prospect of a bumper harvest is good. There are record sheep prices, and that is good. The national record was achieved at Wagga Wagga, my home town, just the other day, at the Bowman Saleyards, and that is fantastic. But what farmers don't need is for this sort of action at these wharves to hold up their prospect of a better future.

The company has proposed annual 2½ per cent pay rises for four years, no forced redundancies, caps on the use of casual workers and a commitment to preserving jobs, with a focus on permanent roles. That's good, because I know how hard the member for Capricornia—to name just one person—has fought to see casualisation of workers having better arrangements, having better conditions, and people not having to just take casualisation because companies don't offer permanent employment. I know that the Minister for Industrial Relations, who is also the Attorney-General of Australia, Senator Michaelia Cash, is onto this, and that's a good thing. She said the escalation of industrial action could not come at a worse time—of course she's right—given communities were coming out of lockdowns and businesses were reopening their doors.

We as Liberals and Nationals are big backers and big supporters of business—small business, medium-sized business, big business. We back workers, but business can't employ and engage workers if these sorts of things are happening, because, at the end of the day, they have to have credible bottom lines. They have to be able to open their doors and make money in order to employ more people. The arrangements we have put in place since coming back into government in 2013 have fostered a sense of optimism in the business community, notwithstanding we've had droughts, floods, fires and of course the virus, the worldwide COVID pandemic, which has caused such heartache and, sadly, taken so many lives. The MUA Assistant National Secretary, Jamie Newlyn, said Patrick had not reached out to negotiate with the union other than to say their offer was on a 'take it or leave it' basis. There is always a stand-off with these things. It is unfortunate. Hopefully it can get resolved. I have spoken to the transport minister to see what he can do, and he assures me that he has had meetings to that end. I've also spoken with the Leader of the Opposition, to see what he can do from the union viewpoint. Hopefully we can get some common sense, we can get some bipartisanship and we can get this matter resolved.

You can arrange these things on a bipartisan level. When I was the Deputy Prime Minister and I was in charge of the Transport portfolio, I was proud of the fact that we were able to put in place a national freight code, which we managed in hours—not days, not weeks, not months but hours. Working with the ministers—and rest assured none of them were Nationals; they were all Labor or Liberal—it was fantastic to see them come together and work through this. When COVID was first taking a grip on our nation, we all realised that we needed 10 times more toilet rolls than we otherwise would have—we all needed to go to the toilet and have 10 rolls of toilet paper each and every time!

Of course, there was a rush on supermarket shelves not just for Kleenex and other toilet paper but also for so many essential items that we had come to take for granted. We saw those terrible scenes of supermarket shelves being emptied. There were places in my electorate, including Parkes, and Tumbarumba in the member for Eden-Monaro's electorate, where buses originating from the city turned up and stripped the supermarkets clean—absolutely took everything, even gherkins and other things that the member for Stirling may not like on his dinner table. They took everything they could lay their hands on.

Then, of course, we had to put in legislation to stop those goods being sent overseas, because there was that concern. Labor ministers Rita Saffioti from Western Australia, Mark Bailey from Queensland and Jacinta Allan from Victoria came together to work through that national freight code with Andrew Constance in New South Wales—with some help from the new Nationals leader, Paul Toole, I have to say—Michael Ferguson in Tasmania, Chris Steel, another Labor minister from the ACT, and Eva Lawler, another Labor minister from the Northern Territory. They all worked cooperatively and collaboratively to make sure that we put in place the national freight code, with the Domestic Border Control Freight Movement Protocol being endorsed on 24 July 2020 to allow freight to move safely and efficiently across state borders. While everything else seemed to be crumbling around us and we had so much despair and heartache, trucks were able to go through those borders in just a matter of minutes to deliver necessary goods to supermarkets.

I say thank you to the truckies. They were the real heroes of 2020 and beyond. Even this year, they have kept their wheels rolling. Truckies, as we know, keep the freight moving and keep our nation going. I say thank you to those wonderful truck drivers. What they did—not just with supermarket supplies but also with vital medical equipment, personal protection equipment and everything else that they moved around the country—saved lives. They actually saved lives, so thank you to them. We are in a situation at the moment where so many people are now fully vaccinated—that is fantastic. As we, hopefully, come out of the worst of COVID-19, we can look to a brighter and better future.

From a regional perspective, we are crying out for workers. In so many areas of endeavour, we're crying out for more people to come into the country areas and coastal areas and fill those jobs. Just the other day, I attended the Riverina Skills Study, with Regional Development Australia Riverina partnering with Charles Sturt University to release the findings of a report to see where the gaps are—and we know many of them, of course—and, most importantly, to see how we can connect people with those employment opportunities. There are many. We've got a bumper harvest coming up. We've got so many opportunities in regional Australia, and our best years are ahead of us.

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