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

Seventeen hundred, was it? Thank you very much. But they did not need them. Guess what? Australians were available. But I tell you what the scary part is, people listening out there. The scary part of the new China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is written here for all to see, so rather than reading it I will summarise it for you. While that lot are saying that we and the CFMEU are misleading and xenophobic, which is bulldust, they have done away with that minimum project value. That mob over there—there are only two of them there at the moment. The rest of them must be hiding, because if I was wrong they would be kicking that door down, coming in here and pulling me up on that. Not one of them has come crashing through that door yet.

It says: 'Any project to the value of'—ready? not $2 billion—'$150 million'. If the Chinese—yes, it is the Chinese, because it is the Chinese-Australia Free Trade Agreement—have 15 per cent ownership in that project, they can bring in their own workers. I say to those opposite: come and prove me wrong. You are all out there. You have all got TVs in your offices. In fact, you have got three TVs in your offices. Kick the door down and have a crack at me. This is what makes me so mad, because, you see, it is tied up with other nonsense in this Fair Work Amendment Bill where it goes to a greenfields clause. A greenfields is a brand new project. A brownfields is an existing project. If another mine or gas plant starting up north—and I will talk about the north of our state of WA, Madam Acting Deputy President Lines, but it could be anywhere in Australia—and that mine has 15 per cent Chinese ownership—and we have a massive one in WA called Sino, at Cape Preston; we know that one—and it is valued at $150 million or more, they can flood it with Chinese workers. If we do not have Australian workers available, fine, but they do not even have to labour market test. They do not have to go and get Australian workers. I am not making this up; it is in their damned agreement. And the sad part is that we have the likes of the Daily Telegraphof the Murdoch press who cannot wait to grab the arguments of Mr Robb and Senator Cash.

I am still waiting for Senator Cash to come screaming through the door. She is not here yet. She has three minutes in which to hurry up. Mark my words: she will be carrying on in question time. The poor devils who have to listen to this argument all the time do not hear question time. Well, they all stand up like little robots. They get their dorothy dixers. What we call a dorothy dixer is: 'Sorry, mate, I don't want to do this to you, but you've got to ask this minister this really stupid question and the minister has a prepared speech.' You watch it today. They will say: 'Tell us the benefits of the Chinese-Australia Free Trade Agreement. Tell us about all the jobs that it is going to create. And tell us what the impediments to it are.' They will all act like kiddies—'Oh, that lot over there.' Well, you know what, as long as I am in this building and standing here, I will proudly fight any government who wants to do away with Australian jobs.

Now, I haven't even started on the shipping industry. What you do not know out there is that this mob is again trying to put a bill through this parliament that does away with Australian vessels and Australian crews on our ships. We are an island nation with the fifth-largest shipping task in the world, and what they want to do is deflag Australian vessels. They want to run up a foreign flag on the back of these vessels and put foreign crews on them. You have all heard the arguments going on with Mr Bill Milby, who heads up North Star Cruises in Western Australia. In Broome alone, 17 companies run little charters from Broome all the way to Darwin. They are all Australian flagged vessels, with all-Australian crews. Mr Milby asked the responsible department: 'How do I compete if you're going to let foreign ships in, if you're going to let foreign crews on foreign wages come in and compete with us?' This was a simple question for Mr Truss, who is the minister, and his departmental officials. We got the answer to it last Monday night during an inquiry that was held in this building. They said to him: 'Deflag your ship. Take the Australian flag off it and go over and get a flag of convenience. Just go overseas'—I don't know; Panama or wherever they get them from—'and put that flag on. Get rid of your Australian crew and employ a foreign crew.'

This is just one bill. Most people sitting here would be thinking, 'Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014—what could be harmful about that?' I just hope that in these 20 minutes I have been able to paint the picture for you of the series of mistruths that are told by this lot over there. They can change their Prime Minister every year but the same story will come out. Do you know what? This is the question that should be asked: if any member of this proud parliament who pertains to represent Australian people thinks it is a great thing to do away with Australian jobs, well, maybe I am on the wrong planet. Maybe I have got it all wrong. And how dare I worry about my kids, my neighbour's kids, the next generation of kids and every other Australian! I tell you what: I can sleep at night, because I will always defend Australian jobs. (Time expired)