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

I rise to speak on the Seafearers Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015. This bill concerns the compensation scheme for seafarers and the maritime sector, Seacare. It arises because of a full-court decision of the Federal Court. It said that someone was eligible for this scheme, upholding a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal when, according to the government, players in the industry had assumed that such a person would not be eligible. In other words, the full-court decision said there are people covered by this scheme who, up until now, did not think they had been covered by it.

There are two things you can do if you are a government caught on the hop by a full Federal Court decision. One would be the sensible one, to say to everyone in the industry: 'No one unexpected this, so let's all sit down around the table and sort it out.' You could take the time and sort out what it would mean, for the various standards of compensation and care around the country, if the ruling were upheld. Doing it in this way and getting it right is critical, because compensation and care are not just theoretical concepts. It is people's lives we are legislating for. The compensation and care that people get are likely to determine their quality of life for the rest of their lives.

The alternative to spending the time sitting down and working it out sensibly, with all the stakeholders involved, is to do things on the hop so that people are scrambling to determine what the impacts of legislation are. When this bill was introduced in the other place we were highly critical of the process being followed to introduce it, because this is exactly what the government did. The government said: 'Here's a bill we want you to deal with—very quickly—that's going to introduce a uniform set of national standards; then attempt to get it through the parliament as quickly as possible without talking to the stakeholders.' Not surprisingly, the stakeholders were a bit concerned about this. We were concerned about it. The Labor Party was concerned about it.

It seems to be very much at the last minute that the government has come to its senses. It has sat down and had that round table, talking to all the stakeholders. They have agreed to a set of amendments to this legislation that properly address the issues, particularly the serious concerns that were raised in the Senate inquiry into this bill. At the last minute, we now do have some legislation that is going to properly address the issues that were raised and the quandary that we were put in with the result of that Full Court decision. I am pleased to say that the Greens are going to be able to support this legislation, subject to the passing of those amendments.