Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I look forward to making a contribution today on the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2015 Measures No. 3) Bill. It is a pretty dull, boring, colourless day in Canberra, but I thought that I would come down and liven it up a bit. The worst part of going further down the pecking order is that most of your colleagues have said the things that you wanted to say. But it would not be remiss of me if I just threw a few more suggestions around. It is not very hard for those opposite to realise that, unfortunately, I do not have a great deal of confidence in our current minister when it comes to shipping. It has been proved that he is anti Australian shipping, anti Australian jobs. They love to wrap it all up as an attack on the MUA.

Two Fridays ago I had the pleasure of attending the shipping summit down in Melbourne. The shipping summit was put together—before they all start jumping up and down—by a very impressive array of people who actually have skin in the game in shipping. It was convened by the ACTU and Senator Madigan. They came together and said, 'Let's get together the people who are going to be affected by this ridiculous decision by this crazy government over there to kill off Australian shipping jobs.' It was well attended because there were—it is not very often that I read speeches, but I am just reading a couple of notes—the MUA, of course; shipowners were there; Shipping Australia were there; ANL were there; the cement industry was there and there was an array of senators. Apart from Senator Madigan there were Senator Lambie, Senator Rice and me. I am sure Senator Rice will concur with me that it was a worthwhile event. I stayed for the whole day. The sad part, as Senator Rice would know, is that no-one from the government bothered. Not one single government representative could be bothered to go to a shipping summit and actually listen to the effects that this and other crazy legislation would have on Australia's seafarers and Australia's shipping industry.

They did not give a damn about doing away with Australian jobs. They did not stop to think for one minute about the implications that would be created or the knock-on bad effects, like the possibility of 1,100 seafarers being put out of work and being undermined by foreign labour. Don't you dare call me xenophobic, you lot over there. I will always stand up for Australians jobs. If we do have foreign seafarers, they need to be paid the same conditions and wages as Australian seafarers. But to come blindly charging out and make yourself feel so proud that you are going to get rid of Australian jobs, it makes me want to vomit. Not only are the seafarers the ones who are going to lose but so will Australian businesses.

The hypocrisy of that lot over on that side has no limits, because they just do not want to listen. The classic example of what it meant to Australian business was none other than a Mr Bill Milby. We have read about Mr Bill Milby. If you have not heard about Mr Bill Milby, you have been on another planet for the last week and a half. Mr Bill Milby represents North Star Cruises. North Star Cruises has that wonderful yacht, True North. I have actually been on it. It is magnificent. Mr Milby employs about 40 Australians. They predominantly live in Western Australia, down south, and they predominately are a lot of young people, plus the experienced skippers and the masters. He also has employees who live in Broome. They are all Australian. That is one business up there in the Kimberley in Broome, in God's country, right up the top there. Don't worry about what the eastern staters say; that is God's country.

But there are also another 16 Australian companies who are based up there. They do the tours and those wonderful cruises from Broome all the way through to Darwin. They pick up some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. But they also work very, very closely in conjunction with the traditional owners, because there are certain parts of that coastline that are off limits, because the traditional owners have certain places that are men only and women only. Those companies not only contribute to Australian jobs but they contribute to the economy; their taxes are being paid in Australia. Everyone wins.

This government, under this incompetent minister, is doing everything it can to kill off not only Australian jobs, as I said, but also Australian businesses. To make matters even worse, Mr Bill Milby heard from the minister. I will paraphrase. Mr Milby said, 'What I going to do about my jobs?' I am led to believe that the minister pushed him off to officials from the department of transport or whatever they are called now. You know the acronym—regional development and all that sort of stuff. There were bureaucrats from Surface Transport Policy. I do not have to mention their names, because they were exposed at the hearing that we had here last Monday night. Senator Bill Heffernan called them out. To give them credit, they did not lie.

They actually agreed—you know how they can get a little bit weaselly on their words—about what they said to Mr Milby. He asked, 'How am I going to be competitive if I have got to get rid of Australian jobs and there'll be foreigners coming in? How do I do that? Foreign crews, foreign ships.' They told him explicitly, 'You're living in a different world now. You'll just have to go offshore and deflag your Australian vessel. You'll have to go offshore to get a flag of convenience or do something, and then you have to get rid of your Australian crew and you have to employ foreigners.' And these clowns over here think they are doing a fantastic job! It makes me absolutely livid because it is beyond the realm of just wanting to attack the unions, which is all they ever want to do. They have gone that far: they are not just happy attacking the unions. This is just ground zero; they will blast everything out.

Mr Deputy President, I do not have a lot of time. I am not going to seek to continue my remarks. But I will go back to this bill: here is another classic example where a bill was put in under the previous Labor government that gave Australian shipping companies the opportunity to compete in tax offsets. But what does this government want to do? They want to kill it off. Here is another arrow in their artillery to shoot through the heart of Australian employers and Australian workers. I do not know what possesses them to think that this is intelligent policy.

It is getting to the stage where they even had a follow-on. Not only did they shoo Ford and Holden off our shores and not only have they done some grubby deal to have submarines built offshore—let's face it, they have not come back and said these submarines will be built in Australia—but thousands of jobs are going. Yet they are still not content. They want to kill off another 1,100 jobs. Those 1,100 seafaring jobs were figures that were supplied to us at the summit and they were also backed up at the Senate inquiry last Monday night.

I do not hear anyone rushing into the chamber here to take me on. I can tell you another thing about this: in the last round of Senate estimates, the mob from Surface Transport Policy—the same ones, these people are unbelievable; there must be a certain criteria when you join certain parts the public service that you take your brain out and leave it at the door—they came in and espoused this wonderful new initiative by this same Minister Truss called 'setting the course'. I said, 'What the hell is setting the course?' They are telling us—which, der, I have been saying it years, because I knew it back in the nineties—that Australia's road freight transport task is going to double by 2020. Their solution is: 'Good, we will put it all on ships.' Absolutely fantastic! Everyone out there better know that they will not be Australian ships and they will not be Australian crews.

In fact, it led me to the point where I got that frustrated with the bureaucracy that I even suggested that they should set the course for the door, because it is just disgraceful that Australian bureaucrats think that this is a good idea. It leads me to the question: who is leading who by the nose? Is the minister that incompetent that he cannot put his hand on his heart and say to his bureaucracy, 'Whoa, stop, I am not going to trade off Australian jobs.' Or are the bureaucrats that dumb that they are following this terrible piece of legislation and coming up with worse pieces of legislation? They then put their hands on their hearts and say, 'Haven't I done a great job? I've still got my job. I'm all right. I'm protected.'

As my colleagues Senator Ludwig and Senator Ketter said, we are an island nation. For crying out loud, we have got the fifth largest shipping task in the world. We should be proud of what we have done over the years. But to just outsource it offshore to foreign workers on shocking wages, with shocking conditions and with shocking safety? Let's not forget the flags of convenience show that was on Four Corners about when two seamen and an engineer were killed. There is the sort of nonsense, let alone when we start talking about the environment.

As the previous minister, Anthony Albanese said, this is WorkChoices on water. This is a classic example of an incompetent government who does not give a damn about Australian jobs and is running up the white flag. It is not the Australia flag on the back of our ships; they are running up the white flag. Let's hope they all run up the white flag at the next election, because Australia deserves far more than what this lot are delivering. Yet they dare to attack us because we want to stand up for Australian jobs through this ChAFTA—or whatever it is called now: the Chinese export agreement. How great they are!

You know what? A true leader of this nation would unite its citizens. A true leader would do everything he or she possibly could to create opportunity for all Australians—as many Australians as possible. They would not stand up here in this place—here in Canberra—and divide our nation, setting workers against workers and companies against companies. Australia deserves a lot better and hopefully tomorrow—no, I will take that back. It will be all the same stuff, like a pair of old, dirty shoes. You can change the socks, but it is still the same old dirty shoe. I am not supporting the bill.

Sitting suspended from 18 : 30 to 19 : 30