Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be supporting this amendment. It is the equivalent of our amendment (4) on sheet 7665.

This amendment really puts the priorities of this government in stark relief. We are going to be saving a measly $2 million by abolishing the seafarer tax offset. In doing that we are going to be adding to the risk of completely destroying the Australian shipping industry—shifting support away from the Australian shipping industry so that we will end up having virtually no Australian flagged ships or Australian workers, and far fewer Australian seafarers, in our waters.

It is a tiny saving that this measure would make. It is a measure which makes savings that, if it were being supported in the interest of balancing the budget, could easily be made in other areas. In fact, many times this amount of money could be made in revenue from the big end of town.

The shipping industry needs certainty at the moment. We have the minister's options paper, so we really do not need to be adding this as an extra impact on the shipping industry—an extra impact that is going to be reducing the viability of the Australian shipping industry. Shipping is an international industry and it means that we have to be competitive internationally. Other countries have similar tax offsets. Removing this tax offset will put the Australian shipping industry at a disadvantage. As Senator Singh has already said, the seafarer tax offset has the support of players right across the field in the shipping industry. It is a measure that, for a relatively small cost, helps to support and enable our shipping industry to continue to flourish and thrive.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (20:54): The question is that schedule 2 stand as printed.

Question negatived.