Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Let us make no mistake about what the Shipping Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 seeks to do. It seeks to set up, in effect, a parallel industrial relations system in this country whereby maritime workers are treated in one way—a terrible way, I might add—and people who work on land, even people who work on land in the transport and logistics sector in our land based supply chains, are treated far, far better and far, far more fairly and are afforded far greater protections in terms of their workplace safety than maritime workers would be should this legislation pass. This is, in effect, maritime Work Choices, but it is even worse than that because, of course, should this legislation pass, shipping workers in this country, who will overwhelmingly be working on foreign flagged vessels and who inevitably will be foreign workers, will have to put up with even worse work conditions than the draconian Work Choices legislation delivered for Australian workers.

Historically, conservative coalition parties in this country have a long and terrible history when it comes to the way they value and the way they treat shipping workers in Australia. And the coastal shipping changes contained in this legislation are another chapter in that terrible book. Remember, this started as an Abbott government policy and it is now being continued—as so much is currently being continued—as a Turnbull government policy. It will oversee the decimation of employment for Australians in the Australian shipping industry. It will cost significantly in terms of Australian jobs and it will cost significantly in terms of the working conditions of workers who are left in the Australian maritime industry sectors. Of course, it will also significantly increase environmental risks for our beautiful coastal waters and coastlines.

Effectively, the government is brazenly trying to sack just about the entire current Australian maritime workforce and replace them with cheaper workers sourced from other countries no doubt, with resultant environmental and occupational health impacts that will flow from these changes. It is like a large-scale version of the Patrick stevedores' dispute in 1998—and who can forget those difficult and terrible days—except instead of guards, barbed wire and German shepherd dogs we have legislation and weasel words from this government.

The net result of this legislation, according to MUA modelling, will be the loss of more than 1,000 jobs across Australia. In speaking as a senator for Tasmania, it is worth pointing out that over 200 of those jobs will be lost from my home state of Tasmania. In fact, the MUA estimates that in the Tasmanian context the only Australian shipping jobs that will remain will be those working on the Spirit of Tasmania, which is less than 90 people. So we will, as has been so eloquently pointed out by our spokesperson on this issue, Senator Rice, be very strongly voting against this legislation. As I alluded to earlier, if we go ahead with these proposed changes there will inevitably be a drop in working conditions, and we have heard story after story in this country of the exploitation of foreign workers on foreign flagged vessels that have worked in Australian waters. They are terrible stories of exploitation and they should have no part in the narrative of our great country.

Not only will there inevitably be a drop in working conditions; there will also be a drop in environmental standards, and our coastline is one of our greatest national assets. We have iconic areas right around our beautiful continent, including global icons like the Great Barrier Reef, and we should value these because they are our competitive advantages as a country. These are the assets that our country has that can deliver jobs and prosperity into the future for Australians. We recently saw the appalling way that 36 Tasmanian workers were treated on the Alexander Spirit, and this legislation is an attempt by this Commonwealth government to make such job cuts commonplace.

I would like to turn my attention to some specific local issues in Tasmania. Recently, a company called DP World Australia promised to build an expanded port facility at the Port of Burnie but only if these laws are passed. I want to say very clearly to the Senate today that Tasmanians here have been presented by DP World Australia and the Commonwealth government with a false choice. We do not have to choose in Tasmania between lower freight costs and Australian and Tasmanian shipping jobs. That is a false choice. The Australian Greens acknowledge the challenges faced by exporters in Tasmania. Put simply, it is too expensive to get freight across Bass Strait. But remember, we are a federation here in Australia and, if we are serious about the federal model, all states should get a fair crack assessed on the basis of genuine need at funding pies like, for example, the National Highway funding. I want to put very clearly on the table my support for Bass Strait to be made part of the National Highway and for National Highway funding to be allocated on the basis of genuine need. The problem is that successive Commonwealth governments see National Highway funding as one of the biggest opportunities to pork-barrel that exists in the Commonwealth budget, and we need to see far more rigor and far more transparency applied in National Highway funding, and it should be assessed on the basis of genuine need. Bass Strait should be made part of the National Highway, and, if we did those two things, a number of the very significant freight challenges facing Tasmanian exporters would be addressed. So it is a false choice for Tasmanians to be told they have to either lower standards on Australian shipping or put up with high freight costs and potentially not get an expansion to the Burnie port.

Australia has a skilled, hardworking maritime workforce, and they should not be cast aside because of an ideological attack on them, and that is what this bill is in part: an ideologically based attack on our maritime workforce all because the Turnbull government believes these workers are paid too much. That, fundamentally, is the other driver of this legislation. The government believes that our maritime workers are paid too much, and they have acknowledged that, if this legislation passes, there will be a significant reduction in pay for people working on Australian shipping routes. So we will not support these changes that sell out the rights and futures of Australian workers. We will not support this legislation, which will place at risk our fisheries and our coastal environment, including global icons like the Great Barrier Reef, simply so that companies who are already making a reasonable profit can make a bit more. We believe in a well-trained and reasonably paid shipping workforce, and we believe that such a workforce can be at the centre of Tasmania's and Australia's prosperity in the coming years.

We have spoken at length about the fact that Tasmania's competitive advantages—and our state has many competitive advantages—create a framework for high-value export industries like, for example, viticulture, aquaculture, cut flowers, honey, small fruits, boutique beer and cider, produce from broadacre farming and a range of other high-quality, world-class products and services that we create and produce in Tasmania. We realise that they need an acceptable way to export into national and international markets, and we want to work constructively with anyone in this place or the other place who will work with us to bring about equity in terms of national highway funding and having Bass Strait included as part of the national highway. But all of those industry sectors that I mentioned are contingent on safe, reliable and sustainable shipping. They need safe, reliable and sustainable shipping to bring their products to the rest of the country and the rest of the world, and we will not stand by and go down without a fight as this government tries to throw the hardworking people in the shipping industry onto the scrap heap.