Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last month Devonport was the scene for what I fear may become a common event in the maritime sector. The 36 crew of the Caltex oil tanker Alexander Spirit learnt that on their return to Singapore they would lose their jobs. Soon after, the nation learnt that these jobs would be filled by foreign workers. My heart went out to these men and women who had been previously told that their jobs were safe until 2019. These people have mortgages, families and plans for the future—all of these were thrown into doubt with the terrible news.

Whenever I could I went down to the ship and the community gathering. I visited not only to show my solidarity with these workers but also to register my disgust at the Abbott government's complete unwillingness to fight for these Australian jobs. But it was not just me who recognised how wrong this move was. In fact, the whole community responded. A picket was set up beside the ship, which was manned for the entire three weeks the ship was docked in Devonport. A community rally drew around 200 people from the surrounding region in support of the workers and their plight.

Clearly the local community cared about what was happening to these hardworking men and women. It was great to see. Sadly, not one Liberal member of parliament attended the rally. In fact, even though there are seven Liberal members of parliament living on the north-west coast, not one ever went to meet the workers, to learn their stories and to offer them support. Not one member of the state or Liberal government attempted to fight for these maritime jobs.

On one of my visits to the picket line I was grateful for the opportunity to board the ship and meet with these hardworking men and women personally. The human faces on board of Joanne, Varro, Andrew, Ray and Stuart tell the story of why this move by Caltex to replace them with a foreign crew is just so wrong. The workers told me stories of their families, their love of the sea and their jobs that they thought were secure. They also told me how the life plans they had mapped out on this basis were now in jeopardy.

It was very emotional to sit on the ship seeing them break down in tears, wondering why they could not get their questions about their future answered after several days of waiting. They knew that once the ship sailed for Singapore they would not have jobs. These workers put on a brave face to the public at the community picket, but talking to them in their workplace and their home—as some of them referred to the ship—was heart wrenching. They told me how proud they were of the work they had done and how differently Australian crews operate compared to foreign crews. They talked of the high standards that Australian crews uphold. One told me that when he worked on a foreign-flagged boat the normal procedure was to dump or pump all the rubbish directly into the ocean—something that Australian crews would never do.

But the decision of Caltex does not stop at the men and women who have lost their jobs on the Alexander Spirit. It signals a threat to Australia's maritime capacity if we let these skilled and strategic jobs go offshore. John Lloyd, a maritime professor at Launceston's Maritime College, recognised this very serious risk recently when he said:

The Australian seafarer is something of an endangered species, and for an island nation dependent on shipping for its international trade, this should be ringing warning bells … the decline will … continue without a fresh perspective and a willingness for constructive dialogue.

Professor Lloyd is absolutely right. Australia's crewing record is second to none. No Australian vessel with an Australian crew has even been detained for a breach. When you compare this to the numerous incidents of foreign-flagged vessels being detained for safety, ethical and environmental issues it becomes clear how important it is to maintain our local crews.

This is not just about maritime jobs; it is about our national capacity, maritime security, the environment and, very importantly, our fuel security. Australia is already down to four refineries and two Australian crewed vessels which carry fuel around our coast, compared to eight refineries and 11 vessels in 1996. Australia has only around three weeks supply of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. Since 2000 our dependence on imported fuel has grown from 60 per cent to 91 per cent today. Fuel is the lifeblood of our society and without it everything would come to a screeching halt.

Given these very serious risks to both our maritime capacity and our fuel security you would expect the government to be pulling out all the stops to find a solution to save these jobs. Well you would be wrong. In fact, the terrible circumstances that have befallen the Alexander Spirit crew are just the tip of the iceberg. If the Abbott government succeeds in passing its job-killing coastal shipping legislation, then we will see many more stories like this—more stories of skilled Australian workers sacked, more stories of foreign crews moved in to be paid Third World wages and more stories of Australian fuel and maritime security being put in increasingly greater peril. The coastal shipping legislation introduced into parliament in the most recent sitting would allow foreign-flagged vessels working between Australian domestic ports for up to 183 days a year to pay Third World level wages.