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

I will withdraw that so that you do not get all upset, Mr Acting Deputy President. I am passionate about Australian jobs and it really, really irks me that this lot over there cannot wait to bow down and say, 'Oh, yes please!' to the major donors of the Liberal Party whilst Australian jobs go. You lot opposite want to talk about getting rid of Australian seafarers and bringing in flags of convenience. You do not even know who half the people on the ship are. You want to clear your ears out, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President.

We have a high-profile case of a known gun runner—I am not making this up; my committee found this—who confessed he runs guns internationally, Captain Salas. Three people died on his ship. He is a Filipino captain. We are still going through the processes of finding out what the hell happened. I tell a lie; two died on his ship and one went overboard, nowhere to be found. This is how great this mob over here are. There are judicial inquiries going on. Where is Captain Salas? No-one knows where Captain Salas is, so in absentia—is that what you call it?—there was a criminal court case going on in Sydney.

One of the most diligent reporters in this nation, Owen Jacques, who is up there on the Sunshine Coast. Owen actually left the Sunshine Coast because he has been following what has been going on with Captain Salas, the disappearance of the one overboard and the two deaths on the ship. Have a listen to this; I am not making this up. He goes down to Sydney because he knows the criminal inquiry is on. He sits patiently in the back of the room while the high-profile, highly paid judges are all having their conversations about what would happen if they could find Captain Salas. Senator Lambie, have a listen to this: smoko comes on so up gets Owen Jacques. He walks up to the main prosecutor and he says: 'Mate, I can tell you where Captain Salas is. He's actually pulling into Gladstone today' on whatever ship it was. He is back in our waters. He has been plying his trade in our ports and in our waters. The AFP and Border Protection and Immigration had no damn idea. Can you believe this? They had no idea. All of a sudden, 'Whoops, we'd better pull the whistle out.' The lawyers all gather around and stop it. They put a hold on it for 24 hours and send up some of the black uniforms saying, 'Go grab this captain,' and they bring him down. Can you believe this?

And yet you lot opposite cannot wait. You are salivating to get rid of Australian jobs. You might think you are clever. How the hell can you be clever when you stand there and say, 'Aren't we doing such a fantastic job because we're going to make it a little bit harder for Aussies to get on the port and we'll make it a little bit harder for Aussies to get in the airport,' but you do not know who is coming into this nation half of the time. None of you can argue with me because—guess what—this is a joint fight. Senator Williams has been a fantastic ally on this committee in this inquiry, and so has Senator O'Sullivan. So it is not only the Labor senators who are absolutely concerned.

This is what really annoys me: last time I checked, we are an island nation whether we like it or not. The majority of the freight that moves on and off our shores is done through shipping. I have absolutely no qualms with Australian businesses plying their business trade along our coast.

Have a listen to this: our fuel is not even carted on Australian ships anymore, and it is not carted by Australian crews. We do not even know how much fuel we have. We have no idea. That is another inquiry, but I do not have to talk about that one. No-one could tell us how much fuel we have in this nation. So we want to talk to Defence and hear their concerns, whilst this mob continue to say, 'How can we get rid of Australian seafarers and Australian ships?'

When we talk about Australian engineers, these people do not—like some foreign and Indian truck drivers—get their licence out of a Weeties packet. I am not making this up; this is another inquiry I am doing. Mr Acting Deputy President, I am happy to come in here and do 20 minutes telling you all about that, too, if you have missed the other four or five I have done. They actually spend years and years learning their trade, plying their trade along the coast and doing the training along the coast in Australian ships—masters, chiefs, skippers and engineers.

All the while, that mob over there are desperately trying to push the Aussie ships and jobs offshore so Rio Tinto or someone like that can be more competitive. Are you listening, Senator Canavan? Where are our captains, our chiefs and our masters going to come from? Where are our engineers going to come from? Let us not forget that one of our closest friends in a wartime situation is the merchant navy. Where do you think they all come from? Do you think that the flags of convenience are going to come to our aid? This is how stupid it is.

Our Australian seafarers are out there trying to do their jobs, not getting hassled by you mob over there kowtowing to your donors. They all pay tax in Australia, they raise their kids in Australia and they pay GST and income tax in Australia. Everything stays in Australia, and it is not going offshore. Can someone give me a good, economical argument why it is so intelligent to have flags of convenience? Some of these seafarers are not making a lot of money. And I am not having a go at the foreign ones—them poor devils—but this is a stupid argument. They sit there and tell us they are going to put through a little amendment to a bill so that someone else can be escorted on with their red cards and walk along the port. But we are on the port. We are not worried about who the hell is bringing the freight in.

Before we start getting into national security and before we start arguing about environment issues, it is not Aussie ships and Aussie crews running aground on the Great Barrier Reef and it is not Aussie ships and Australian crews that break up at Cape Cuvier over in WA. None of them were Australian. They were foreign seafarers on flag of convenience vessels.

But I want to talk about another thing, and this is just how bad it is going. Minister Chester does not talk a lot to us. I do not know what is going on over there, but he has brought back the report that is all to do with the deregulation of the Australian shipping industry. It hit the ground today. I had the pleasure of catching up today with Mr Bill Milby. All of us in here who have been following this argument know who he is. Mr Bill Milby was at a forum with department officials when this new piece of legislation for deregulating the Australian shipping industry was first raised. Mr Milby queried it with the pointy heads down there at the department.

First I had better tell you what Mr Milby does. He is with North Star Cruises. He is the CFO and he works for two Australians, one of whom started North Star Cruises 30 years ago out of Broome—and this is going on my bucket list for when I retire. I want to cruise all the way from Broome to Darwin. The owner, who has brought another owner in, has been there for 30 years. Mr Milby has been with North Star Cruises for 15 years. There are 60-odd Australians or more—