Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge a number of the points made by Senator Abetz in his eloquent contribution in favour of the Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015. He talks about issues of inefficiencies, rorts and matters that must be attended to. But I cannot support this bill because it will have a very counterproductive effective in respect of Australian shipping. It purports to strengthen Australian shipping, but it will do the opposite. It will deskill our Australian shipping workforce. It will basically gut Australian shipping. On what argument do I rely? On what basis do I say this? Is it the MUA? Is it others who say that this is not worth doing, that it is too risky to do? No. And this is not a prop, so I will not get into trouble with you, Acting Deputy President Williams. This is the government's own explanatory memorandum of the bill. It is a thing called a RIS, not risible, a regulatory impact statement—and it does make me risible reading this, though. It states:

Many of the operators currently operating under the Australian General Register would likely re-flag their vessels in order to compete with the foreign operators who enjoy the benefit of comparatively lower wage rates. Australian seafarer jobs would be adversely affected as Australian operators re-flag from the Australian General Register.

It goes on:

Ship operators are likely to replace Australian seafarers (paid under EA rates) with foreign seafarers (paid under ITF rates)—

in other words, lower rates. The government's own regulatory impact statement in the explanatory memorandum explains it all.

This will kill Australian jobs. This will destroy Australian jobs in the shipping industry. I acknowledge there is work to do. I acknowledge the genuineness and the concern of the Deputy Prime Minister, the minister involved, who says that we need to be more efficient. I acknowledge that. But this is not the way to do it. You do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You do not just get rid of, effectively, the Australian shipping industry because it will gut Australian shipping. There will be no chance to get it back. There will be foreign flagged vessels with no real Australian workforce.

I acknowledge there are issues with the current licencing system for coastal shipping. This bill is not the way to overcome these issues. Inefficiencies in the licencing system cannot be rectified at the expense of mass Australian job losses. If the MUA is not efficient, if the MUA is not doing the right thing, if there are rorts involved then let's tackle those head-on. This bill will destroy Australian jobs.

This bill removes three key objectives from the coastal shipping act that make specific reference to long-term growth, efficiency and reliability of the Australian shipping. So it is actually removing those key elements from the act—growth, efficiency and reliability. These worrying omissions have set the scene for what could turn out to be a nightmare for Australian seafarers and Australian jobs.

The Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill seeks to abolish the four permits currently available to all ships and replace them with a single permit. The result of this change will be to level the playing the field, so-called, between Australian and foreign flagged ships. But we know there is no level playing field. You cannot compete with—what did Senator Rice say they get? Was it $2 an hour? It is like those two-dollar shops; those two-dollar ads.